PERMANENCE AND CHANGE

A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE PROBLEM OF

RELATING NEW ARCHITECTURE TO EXISTING SETTINGS

Volume I

Vassilios Ganiatsas

Ph. D.

Department of Architecture

University of Edinburgh

1987
 DECLARATION

This thesis has been composed by myself

and is my own original work.

Vassiiios Ganiatsas

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This thesis is the result of many years of research and projects. I formulated the prob¬
lem that is dealt with as a student at the National Technical University of Athens. My first
acknowlegment must go to my colleagues and my professors for their help during those
years. Professor John Liapis in particular, through his inspiring criticism had contributed a
lot to some most successful projects.

My gratitude should be expressed to the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation for show¬

ing a deep interest in my subject and financing my research with a scholarship for three
years.

In Edinburgh I found a most fertile intellectual environment for the theoretical

development of what I had dealt before as a designer's problem. Under the most inspiring
and enhancing guidance of my supervisor, Professor C. B. Wilson, I not only managed to
articulate my thoughts in a thesis, but I enjoyed a continuous intellectual experience. To
him is my debt of a profound gratitude for sharing my initial enthusiasm for my subject of
this thesis and leading me through the labyrinth. During the end of my thesis Dr P. G.
Raman helped me considerably as a friend and a second supervisor with succinct criticism
and suggestions.

My colleagues in the Department of Architecture contributed a lot with intellectual

incentives, encouragement and joy. Eleni Tatla in particular, has shared all my difficult
moments with the thesis, and has been a constant source of ideas and critical suggestions.
Her invaluable help during the critical final stages of the thesis, made its timely submission
a reality.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents and sister for their understanding,
encouragement, and moral support.

iii
 ABSTRACT

The man-made environment is mutually constitutive with socio-cultural life in it

Apart from its physical and formal characteristics, every setting is characterized by an

idiosyncratic process of development. Relating new architecture to an existing setting is a

problem which reveals the fundamental issues concerning the interpretation of this setting
and intervention in its development. As such, this problem concerns the development of
architecture as a whole.

Amid contemporary world-wide universalism, there is also a need for a sense of

belonging to the environment we collectively live in, and for a lasting relationship with it.
The current dilemma of conservation versus planning can find a satisfactory resolution - or

else, be considered as a false dilemma - on the basis of a contextually concerned planning

and a conservation philosophy which enhances contemporary development and can there¬
fore be considered as a form of it.

Permanence and change are considered in this study as complementary dialectical

notions capable of describing the way architecture and social life evolve. The dialectics
between permanence and change as it is experienced in relating new and existing architec¬
ture is addressed through the polarities of synchronicity/diachronicity,
continuity/discontinuity, constructive/destructive, and ephemeral/permanent. New and exist¬
ing architecture are interrelated at several levels through these polarities in terms of imita¬
tion and contrast.

On the premises of philosophical hermeneutics, the thesis examines the dimensions

of the man-made environment, the designation of levels at which collectively we under¬
stand our surroundings, and the levels at which new and old are interrelated. The dialectics
between new and old architecture conceived as a lasting, contextually significant and finally
open-ended dialogue penetrates this thesis as a whole, and emerges as a practical interpre¬
tative and evaluative method of inquiry.

Finally, the thesis suggests a philosophical framework to inform and guide architec¬
tural practice instead of proposing definite answers or stereotyped solutions. Architectural

iv
theories, far from prescribing blueprints, should inform architectural practice not from a

standpoint of truth but from a vision of life. Even so, theories can only enhance architec¬
tural creation -
they cannot substitute for it.

v
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

ABSTRACT iv

INTRODUCTION-CONCEPTUALIZATION

1. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM 1

2. THE PURPOSE OF THE THESIS 2

3. THE STRUCTURE AND THE CONTENTS OF THE THESIS 4

4. NOTES TO THE READER 6

CHAPTER ONE

RELATING NEW ARCHITECTURE TO OLD:

THE PROBLEM AND THE BACKGROUND

1.1. THE PROBLEM TODAY 7

1. 2. LOOKING FOR PRECEDENTS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 9

1. 3. THE RENAISSANCE AND ITS REPERCUSSIONS 10

1. 4. THE AGE OF HISTORY 12

vi
 1. 5. THE EMERGENCE OF MODERNISM 14

1. 6. "THE MODERN CULT OF MONUMENTS:' 15

1. 7. THE VALUE OF CONTRAST IN "THE BRAVE NEW WORLD" 17

1. 8. FROM CONTRAST TO ANALOGY 19

1. 9. THE TWO FACES OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE 20

1. 10. AFTER THE MODERN MOVEMENT 21

1. 11. IMITATION OR CONTRAST? A (FALSE?) DILEMMA

AND THE CONTEMPORARY SITUATION 22

CHAPTER TWO

THE REHABILITATION OF IMITATION:

A REVIEW OF THEORIES CONCERNING THE RELATION OF

NEW ARCHITECTURE TO HISTORIC SETTINGS

2. 1. THEORIZING ABOUT THE RELATIONS BETWEEN

NEW AND EXISTING ARCHITECTURE 24

2. 2. ROBERT VENTURI AND THE RECOVERY OF AMBIGUITY

IN ARCHITECTURAL FORM 24

2. 3. ALDO ROSSI AND THE REDEMPTION OF URBAN MEMORY 27

2. 4. COLIN ROWE AND THE COMPROMISE BETWEEN

THE HUMANISTIC VIEW OF HISTORY

AND THE LIBERAL UTOPIA 31

2. 5. THE NEED FOR A SPATIO-TEMPORAL APPROACH

TO CONTEXTUALISM 38

vii
CHAPTER THREE

THE IMITATION - CONTRAST DIALECTICS

IN RELATING NEW ARCHITECTURE TO OLD SETTINGS

3. 1. INTRODUCTION - CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 41

3. 2. THE NOTION OF IMITATION 42

3. 2. 1. MIMESIS BEFORE PLATO 42

3. 2. 2. PLATO ON MIMESIS AND ARTISTIC CREATION 44

3. 2. 3. ARISTOTLE ON MIMESIS AND ART 46

3. 2. 4. THE MIMETIC APORIA 48

3. 2. 5. THE CLASSICAL AFTERMATH 49

3. 3. CONTEXTUALLY ORIENTATED IMITATION 51

3. 4. CONTEXTUAL DIMENSIONS 53

3. 5. IMITATING THE CONTEXT 55

3. 5. 1. THE CONTEXT AS A SPATIAL STRUCTURE 55

3. 5. 2. THE CONTEXT AS A LIFE PROCESS 57

3. 6. CONTRAST AS A NOTION DIALECTICAL TO IMITATION 60

3. 7. FROM CONTEXT TO INTERVENTION:

THE DIALECTICS BETWEEN IMITATION AND CONTRAST

AS A CREATIVE PROCESS 63

3. 8. CONCLUSIONS 68

viii
CHAPTER FOUR

TOWARDS A DIALECTIC CONCEPTUALIZATION

OF TIME IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT

4. 1. RELATING OLD AND NEW IN TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE:

TEMPORAL DEPTH AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION 69

4. 2. CONTEXTUAL FACETS AND THEIR TEMPORAL DIMENSIONS 72

4. 3. TIME AS A QUALITY IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT 75

4. 4. THE TIMES OF SIENA AND THE TIMES OF FLORENCE 78

4. 4. 1. THE COMMON BACKGROUND 78

4. 4. 2. THE TIMES OF SIENA 80

4. 4. 3. THE TIMES OF FLORENCE 80

4. 4. 4. TWO TIMES RECONSIDERED 81

4. 5. TIME AS DEFINED BY ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE:

SOME CONCEPTUAL NOTATIONS 83

4. 6. CONCEPTUALIZING ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE

DIALECTICALLY 88

4. 7. INTRODUCING SOME OPPOSED QUALITIES

OF ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE 89

4. 8. EPHEMERALITY VERSUS PERMANENCE:

QUALITIES OF LONG AND SHORT DURATION

IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT 91

4. 9. TIME CONSTRUCTIVE AND TIME DESTRUCTIVE 96

4. 10. THE QUESTION OF CONTINUITY:

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 UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN THE PROCESS

OF ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT 100

4. 11. SYNCHRONICITY VERSUS DIACHRONICITY:

CONTEMPORARY AND HISTORIC DIMENSIONS

IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT 109

4. 12. CONCLUSIONS 118

CHAPTER FIVE

SPATIO-TEMPORAL CONTEXTUALISM & PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS

5. 1. INTRODUCTION 120

5. 2. CONTEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE:

A QUESTION OF INTERPRETATION 120

5. 2. 1. WHY CONTEXTUALISM? 120

5. 2. 2. THE HERMENEUTICS OF ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE:

INTERPRETING NEW ARCHITECTURE

IN OLD SETTINGS 124

5. 3. THE ONTOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS OF

HANS-GEORG GADAMER

IN RELATION TO ARCHITECTURE 126

5. 4. STRUCTURATION OF LEVELS

IN ARCHITECTURAL HERMENEUTICS 133

5. 4. 1. LEVELS OF INTERPRETATION IN

PAUL RICOEUR'S HERMENEUTICS 133

5. 4. 2. DESIGNATION OF DIALECTICAL LEVELS

IN THE INTERPRETATION OF ARCHITECTURE 136

5. 5. DIALECTICAL HERMENEUTICS AS A METHOD OF

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 CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATION 138

CHAPTER SIX

THE DIALECTICS OF HERMENEUTIC EXPERIENCE IN TWO CONTEXTS

6. 1. NOTES CONCERNING THE INTERPRETATION

OF NEW ARCHITECTURE IN HISTORIC SETTINGS 142

6. 2. THE VENETIAN CONTEXT AS MANIFESTED

THROUGH ALDO ROSSI'S "TEATRO" 144

6. 2. 1. INTRODUCTION 144

6. 2. 2. STRUCTURAL FEATURES - A FIRST

DESCRIPTIVE READING 144

6. 2. 3. SYMBOLIC DIMENSIONS, OR ASSOCIATING

THE "TEATRO" WITH THE VENETIAN CONTEXT 145

6. 2. 4. ATTEMPTING A DIALECTICAL INTERPRETATION 146

6. 2. 4. 1. INTRODUCTION 147

6. 2. 4. 2. SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC

ASPECTS OF VENICE 147

6. 2. 4. 3. TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT

PROPERTIES OF VENICE 150

6. 2. 4. 4. THE DISCUSSED DIALECTICAL LEVELS

OF INTERPRETATION AS ONE PROCESS 153

6. 3. RESPONDING TO THE CLASSICAL IDEAL :

PIKIONIS' ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTION TO

THE CONTEXT OF THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS 156

6. 3. 1. INTRODUCTION 156

xi
 6. 3. 2. EXPERIENCING THE CLASSICAL

AND THE CONTEMPORARY:

A FIRST DESCRIPTIVE ENCOUNTER 157

6. 3. 3. THE ATTIC LANDSCAPE AND ITS MATERIALS 158

6. 3. 4. MEANINGFUL PATTERNS 161

6. 3. 5. THE WALK AND THE WAY 163

6. 3. 6. ATTEMPTING A DIALECTICAL INTERPRETATION 164

6. 3. 6. 1. A MATTER OF HIERARCHY 164

6. 3. 6. 2. THE ANCIENT AND THE MODERN 165

6. 3. 6. 3. THE CONTINUITY OF THE CONTEXT 168

6. 3. 6. 4. THE DIALECTICS OF DESTRUCTION

AND CONSTRUCTION 170

6. 3. 6. 5. PERMANENT AND EPHEMERAL QUALITIES 170

6. 3. 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS 172

6. 4. DISCUSSION - INTERPRETATION AS PARTICIPATION 173

CHAPTER SEVEN

DIALECTICAL HERMENEUTICS AS A VALUE JUDGEMENT THEORY

7. 1. INTRODUCTION 176

7. 2. DIALECTIC ARCHITECTURAL HERMENEUTICS AS PLAY 177

7. 3. NEW ARCHITECTURE AS CREATIVE INTERVENTION:

OPENESS TO CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATIONS

AS A CRITERION FOR AESTHETIC EVALUATION 180

xii
CHAPTER EIGHT

POWER AND LIMITATIONS OF A THEORY

CONCERNING ARCHITECTURAL CREATION

8. 1. CONCLUSIONS :

DIALECTICAL HERMENEUTICS OF ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE

AS A THEORY OF/FOR CONTEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE 187

8. 2. CONTEXTUAL LIMITS AND ARCHITECTURAL CREATION 189

8. 3. LIMITS AND PROSPECTS OF CONTEXTUALISM 190

8. 4. ARTIST VERSUS THEORETICIAN:

INTERPRETATION THROUGH CREATION 191

8. 5. FROM THEORY TO PRAXIS: THE SEARCH FOR VALUES 194

8. 6. A THEORY OR NO THEORY? 196

NOTES AND REFERENCES 197

VOLUME H

ILLUSTRATIONS 215

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ILLUSTRATIONS 326

APPENDIX I

THE DIALECTIC OF THE OPPOSITES AS A METHOD OF INQUIRY

1. THE NOTION OF OPPOSITES IN PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY 328

xiii
 2. A QUESTION OF DIALECTICS 331

3. DIALECTICS OF THE OPPOSITES AS A REASONING TOOL 334

4. FORMAL VERSUS DIALECTIC LOGIC 335

5. DIALOGUE AS A CREATIVE PROCESS 336

6. DIALECTICS AS A METHOD OF INQUIRY - A DISCUSSION 337

7. THE THIRD TERM IN DIALECTICAL OPPOSITION 338

8. HIERARCHY IN DIALECTICS 340

NOTES AND REFERENCES 342

APPENDIX H

OPENNESS IN LITERARY WORKS 346

NOTES AND REFERENCES 349

xiv
 INTRODUCTION - CONCEPTUALIZATION

1. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM

The man-made environment is mutually constitutive with socio-cultural life in it.

Apart from its physical and formal characteristics it is impregnated with various meanings,
associations, allusions, memories, and cultural significance relating to its development.
These values characterize it as an entity and constitute its identity. By virtue of human life
the built environment becomes an alive entity too.

The diversity characterizing the way different people and different societies live their
lives has an immediate impact on the space they live in. The way people create and domes¬
ticate space can be revealing of the values, the particular characteristics, the customs and
the local traditions they are familiar with and hold dear. Due to this fact, every setting is a

unique entity and follows an idiosyncratic development

Contemporary architectural development vis a vis the reality of existing settings

world-wide has come to a predicament After the failure of modem architecture to fulfil
the prospects for a liberal Utopia, a crisis has ensued in architectural theory and practice.
Internationalism in its attempt to create a universal order has deprived architecture from
roots and reference. Today, commercialism advocates only the exploitable aspects of
modernism, such as, standardization and utilitarianism, while the contemporary avant-garde
of the architectural profession has retreated to spasmodic theoretical formulations, pseudo-
scientific models and minimal participation in architectural productions.

At the same time a major shift towards history and the historic environments in par¬
ticular is indicative of the inadequacy of contemporary architecture to respond to the need
for meaning in the man-made environment. A growing conservation movement already
concerns societies, governments and international bodies alike.

The problem of new architecture in existing settings is typical of the contemporary

situation. New architecture is either imposed upon historic settings as an adjunct with no
further significance, or imitates historic architecture in a slavish manner by perpetuating the
forms and/or the materials of the past. Sometimes new architecture in an attempt to avoid
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being totally neutral, produces "hypes" or gimmicks which cannot sustain any meaningful
interaction with their context.

The problem of relating new architecture to existing settings pervades architectural

development as a whole not only because every setting presents its own locally cultivated
characteristics but also because major conservation schemes have come to protect a consid¬
erable degree of settings, and cities. Apart from buildings and settings of distinct historical
importance, vernacular settings, farm buildings and whole areas are already considered of
interest to societies and nations.

After the disillusion with any kind of universalism, response to the local seems to be
the best strategy for architectural development. Despite the possible abuses and misuses
that might ensue, contextualism seems to offer a starting point towards a theory of meaning
capable of enhancing the interpretation and the creation of architecture.

2. THE PURPOSE OF THE THESIS

This thesis attempts to provide the philosophical basis and the theoretical framework,
as well as some structuring lines along which the problem of relating new architecture to
old could find a satisfactory solution.

The prevailing dualism between old and new architecture seems to be based on a

false conflict between them. The broader issue of planning vs conservation seems also to
be a false dilemma. There is no good reason to justify why new architecture should not
develop in parallel with the conservation of the past and be informed by the same theoreti¬
cal premises. There can be new architecture and conservation at the same time without
fragmentation in our relation with the past, as happens to be the case today with a consid¬
erable number of settings.

There is a need for both historical and novel qualities in the built environment, if
only to express the human need for permanence and change alike. New architecture cannot
be considered as "new" in a vacuum. It can only introduce novelty and suggest a change in
relation to an already established and significant context. In parallel, there can be no con¬

servation scheme devoid of a planning attitude. Conservation is a mode of planning and

despite its past orientation is a strategy for the future.

Far from any idealistic reconciliaton of these attitudes, this thesis attempts to establish
a communicative basis and a lasting dialogue between them. There is no such a thing as a
perfect fusion between new and old and there is no necessity for such a fusion, since life

2 -
itself is in constant change. What is important, however, is a lasting dialogue between
existing and new architecture if continuity in the man-made environment is valued. Dialec¬
tics of the opposites as a method of inquiry will be adopted in this thesis to interrelate the
antithetical, and congenial qualities that ensue with every architectural change.

The notions of imitation and contrast will be developed as antithetical, but equally
necessary, conceptual tools in our attempt to assess the relations between new and old
architecture. The mutual interdependence of these two notions calls for a clarification as to
the levels at which they can operate. Imitation of one characteristic necessarily implies con¬
trast to some other since we alwaysrelate two entities however congenial. So, the dialectics
between imitation and contrast becomes meaningful if the level at which they interact is
also assessed. For that purpose four pairs of antithetical designations are suggested. Syn¬
chronic and diachronic, unifying and diversifying, constructive and destructive and, ephem¬
eral and permanent, are some oppositions indicative of a much wider range of oppositions
created from the initial opposition between new and old that any architectural change car¬
ries along. Through these polarities and with the aid of basic notions like imitation and
contrast this thesis will seek the conditions under which contemporary architecture can
embrace values in existing settings.

Interpretation is considered in this thesis of fundamental importance to human life as

a whole. In following the ontological hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer it is argued
that interpretation of new architecture in relation to its context can also guide the creation
of new architecture by discouraging inappropriate and irrelevant intervention in them. Apart
from its use as an interpretative tool in assessing new architecture vis a vis its context, the
theoretical framework suggested in this thesis can also contribute towards a value judge¬
ment theory.

The potential of a lasting dialogue with the architecture of the past can be a criterion
to assess the adequacy of new architecture. Since new architecture will be necessarily
grafted into some existing context, it is useful to examine under which conditions this
cohabitation can be a coexistence. A ludic interpretative process between old and new
architecture can lead to what is considered in this thesis as an ultimate goal for new archi¬
tecture, the openness of its dialogue with its context. Human experience itself has its
fulfilment not in some definite knowledge but in that openness to experience that is
encouraged by experience itself and there is no reason why architecture should not express
this openness also.

Dialectics, as initiated by the presocratics, as implemented by Socrates and as formu¬

lated in the Platonic dialogues - and not as a subordinate element in knowledge in the

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Aristotelian conception - has still today something valuable to offer and architecture could
also benefit from it.

3. THE STRUCTURE AND THE CONTENTS OF THE THESIS

This thesis has eight chapters and two appendices. Chapter ONE examines the
multi-issued problem of contemporary architecture, especially as it appears in relation to
historic settings. It traces back in history some of the ingredients of the problem, such as

antiquarianism, revivalism and the idea of the modern. It introduces the concepts of imita¬
tion and contrast as they appeared in several periods in the past and as they are today.

Chapter TWO provides a critical examination of some influential theories concerning

the relation of contemporary architecture to the architecture of the past and assesses their
merits and their limitations. In these theories some important issues for the puiposes of this
thesis are pinpointed, which are to inform the argument in this thesis in its following
development.

Chapter THREE establishes the notions of imitation and contrast as the kernel con¬

cepts in discussing the relation of new architecture to old. Conceptualized as dialectical

notions, imitation and contrast finally show that they can be considered as creative tools in

assessing and guiding a rapport between new and old architecture.

Chapter FOUR introduces some dialectical polarities, indicative of the antithetical

nature of architectural change. These polarities are traced as existing qualities in the built
environment, although in a hybrid form. As such, despite their inevitably abstract mode,
these antithetical issues do justice to the particular qualities that every setting is endowed
with. The nature of these qualities is examined and assessed in an attempt to approach the
identity of existing settings. Architectural change is seen as giving birth to sets of antithet¬
ical qualities, which both characterize a setting and constitute its identity.

Chapter FIVE attempts a graft from philosophical hermeneutics to the problem of

relating new and old architecture. The importance of interpretation is considered as a

phenomenon characterizing human life as a whole. The particular problem of architecture is

seen as embedded in much wider philosophical issues and an attempt is being made to
assess the implications of hermeneutics for architecture. Hermeneutics of architectural
change becomes a viable theoretical framework capable of linking new and old architecture
in a comprehensive sense. In this chapter, the levels at which people designate and assess
changes in their environment and the way these levels can be incorporated in the interpre¬
tative process are also examined.

4 -
 Chapter SIX exemplifies in a non-technical sense dialectical hermeneutics as a

theoretical framework capable of revealing the antithetical, yet equally significant, proper¬

ties in the built environment. The case of Venice exemplifies par excellence the mortality
of architecture, which to a certain extent pervades architecture and human life as a whole.
The case of Athens exemplifies, again in exaggeration, the permanent qualities of the built
environment, which also characterizes, to different degrees for every setting, architecture as
a whole. Both cases are exaggerations of what every setting actually is: a living entity
which changes, loosing and gaining values, while being itself.

Chapter SEVEN examines the possibility for a value judgement theory for architec¬
ture out of the dialectical hermeneutics of architectural change. It also does justice to the
open-ended nature of dialectics by assessing its ultimate value in an open ludic process.

Chapter EIGHT attempts an appraisal of the potentialities and the limitations of a

theory qua contextual and qua a theory. A suggestion is made that theories of/for architec¬
ture should be orientated towards constructing a theoretical framework capable of enhanc¬
ing architectural creation. Far from prescribing blueprints, theories should be inquiries
capable of informing architectural practice not from a standpoint of truth but from a vision
of life. Finally, architectural practice is considered to be the touchstone for any theory
of/for architecture and socio-cultural life the touchstone for the importance of architecture.

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4. NOTES TO THE READER

This thesis, in response to the need for a comprehensive consideration of the prob¬
lems facing architectural development today, involves the examination of a wide spectrum
of theoretical problems. The argument sometimes cannot be as smooth as it ought to be.
The reading occasionally might become a laborious process. The nature of the problem, as

well as the limitation of a thesis and its writer, often lead to less than a straightforword
flow of the argument.

Major philosophical issues enter the debate developed in this thesis and they neces¬

sarily lead to problematic points. It is in the nature of a thesis to present an argument in a

most rigorous manner. Yet, all too often theses contradict one another, however clear the
argument and despite the fact that they might deal with the same problem. This thesis, at
the expense, perhaps, of a technically concrete exposition of an argument, attempts to sug¬

gest a theoretical environment rather than a falsifiable theory. This does not mean, of
course, that it fulfils its task in the best possible sense. Towards this end this thesis can

only anticipate its further development and elaboration, or its supercession.

6 -
 CHAPTER ONE

RELATING NEW ARCHITECTURE TO OLD: THE PROBLEM

AND THE BACKGROUND

1. 1. THE PROBLEM TODAY

The current interest in relating contemporary architecture to existing settings can

hardly be traced in history as a conscious, premeditated activity and less so as a problem.
It is mainly through the contemporary perspective that a similar problem is supposed to
have existed in the past.

Historical consciousness is a characteristic particularly of "Western" societies and

appears as a necessary complement to their obsession with future orientated progress. In
this situation, the insertion of new architecture in historic settings reveals par excellence
the question of history as a general problem and as an architectural one in particular. The
concept of the "antique", oldness or historicity for its own sake, is modern (1). People used
to relate to their past as a constant source of values or as an ideal to be imitated or re-

enacted; but the past as totally distinct from the present and as something to be slavishly

copied or feel nostalgic about, has been an attitude that originated in the West and became
the idiom of this century. There is little doubt that people must have always felt nostalgic
for familiar artefacts when they were rendered time-worn, became obsolete or were des¬
troyed. However, renewal must have been customarily unquestioned and inevitable.

In the contemporary situation we witness what could be called an unparalleled

"schizophrenia". On the one hand, architectural development takes place at a rapid rate at
the expense of familiar environments; on the other hand, societies that value modernity and
pursue development, realize the loss of familiar places and crave for the restoration, con¬
servation of historic and vernacular buildings and settings.

Although this situation has emerged due to developments particularly characteristic of

"Western" societies, the same remarks hold also true for the so called "developing" world.
The Western model has been adopted there as a panacea for all problems posed by

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7 -
contemporary life and for that reason architectural development there takes place at an even
faster speed and in an even more uncritical way, totally alien to, or at best, disrespectful of,
local characteristics.

Some settings are listed as historic or vernacular and they are preserved in a
mummified condition, while uncritical development takes place in most of the unlisted set¬
tings. In Chester, England, even a new coat of paint in a historic building is subject to
strict Building Regulations and in the Greek island of Hydra virtually no change is
allowed. At the same time nearly everything can be built in Manchester city or the suburbs
of Athens, provided that it complies only with the most basic Building Regulations. In
Edinburgh, the Georgian buildings of the new town are meticulously kept, and recently the
Mediaeval part of Edinburgh too, while the univesity buildings in the centre of the city are

totally alien to their most distinct surroundings. This is not to claim that every setting
should be listed; on the contrary, new architecture should relate to whatever setting it is
being grafted into. If all settings matter the same for the people inhabiting them, then any
selective listing cannot address the problem of architectural development as a whole.

In the market dominated societies of, at least, the "Western" world, the built environ¬

ment is treated as a commodity. Technological development and economic efficiency have

led to, and still determine to a large degree, commercial architectural development and a

meaningless built environment. In parallel, a major conservation movement sweeps govern¬

ments and individual enterprises across the world and confronts architectural development
in most settings listed as architectural heritage. In both cases people witness a fragmenta¬
tion in the environment they live in. Low-cost housing in most British cities is solely deter¬
mined on an economic basis and planned to facilitate only utilitarian needs. Yet, the same
people who live in an environment destitute of any quality are the tax-payers for the con¬

servation of uneconomical railway stations, which are meticulously conserved and kept in
operation because of their Victorian railings and benches (2).

It seems that whatever is appreciated as a quality in the man-made environment is

gradually moving to a museum situation, while the environment most related to everyday
activities, such as houses, offices, workplaces, become more and more stereotyped, dictated

mainly by ergonomic and economic considerations.

All historic settings seem to have similar problems: unless they are turned into muse¬
ums, they are doomed to vanish under contemporary development. Although there is noth¬
ing wrong with this museum phenomenon as such, it comes to be a negative strategy for
urban renewal, if it only takes the role of a poor compensation for lost qualities in the
man-made environment.

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 The museum phenomenon increasingly dominates modem societies and tourism gets a

place in everyone's thinking from governments to individual enterprises. The Australian

writer Donald Home in an illuminating essay deals with museums as rhetoric vehicles for
the representation of history and with tourism as a consumerist attitude towards the past
(3).

The problem arising from the confrontation between old and new architecture per¬
vades contemporary life as a whole and relates to the more general problem of our relation
to the past As Home succintly observes:

-...each (of the styles of the Modem...suited to an industrial age) was based on a
fundamental need to be different from the past, and therein lies the paradox of
modernism: if to be different is the aim, then difference breeds difference, and

nothing new lasts. The contradictions of "revolutionary" modem societies throw

taste into permanent revolution, while the pastfpreserved with increasing diver¬
sity; it is only when a "modem" style sinks out of fashion and then is later
rediscovered - as part of the past - that it becomes permanent. (4)

1. 2. LOOKING FOR PRECEDENTS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Looking back in Western history in order to assess the problem today, we find new
and old buildings to coexist in harmony in ancient Greece. Additions, repairs, transforma¬
tions and substitutions in the built environment occurred as matters of course, without any

consideration and reflection of what was there before. Ancient temples, not to mention
civic architecture, succeeded one another organically, despite differences in materials and
forms.

Pausanias refers to the Heraeum at Olympia as having been initiated in the end of the
7th century B.C. and as being constantly transformed ever since, until at least his time
around 173 A.D. What is particularly interesting for our study from the history of this tem¬
ple, is that its decaying wooden columns were substituted according to the aesthetic criteria
of the times regarding materials, proportions or morphological features. Piecemeal altera¬
tions were conducted regardless of the non-homogeneous appearence of different parts.
Two adjacent columns could differ in diameter or have different numbers of flutes (5). At
the time of Pausanias only one wooden column was left, while the rest had been replaced
by porous-stone ones.

In general, the remains of old buildings were used as a convenient source of materials

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9 -
needed for the construction of new ones. Only in exceptional circumstances old buildings
or parts thereof were preserved for symbolic reasons. The history of building activity on
the Acropolis at Athens is particularly illuminating in regard to these points. Every temple
on the Acropolis rock differed considerably from its predecessor. Yet, despite the massive
renewal operation during Pericles' times, drums from the columns of the temple of Athena
were deliberately built into the N.E. wall to remind the people of the agora of their past.
Instances of preserving and reusing a part of an old building to remember a specific event
in history were not infrequent, but all were done for a particular reason and as an excep¬

tion amid a continuous process of development. Thus it would be misleading to consider

these instances of preserving the past as a substitute for being contemporary.

The practices of the ancient Greeks deserve attention, because they have always pro¬
vided the alibi for the modern historical consciousness. The very idea of progress has been
attributed first to the Greeks, but it has also been convincingly argued that the modern era
not only saw in history what it wanted to see but also created the Greek society as its
predecessor (6). The idea of history itself was conceived by the Classical Greeks in a

different sense from the contemporary Western one. Ancient Greek society did not con¬
ceive the past within a future orientated process of development As far as its relation to
the past is concerned, we can trace little difference from other traditional societies in the
sense that, contemporary life for ancient Greek society was rather a prolongation of the

past than anticipation of the future (7).

Another predecessor of the contemporary historic consciousness can be traced in

Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, where we find an attitude displayed that was rare for the times.
The Roman emperor Hadrian collected in his villa architectural fragments from all the
places he had visited (Figs 1. 1-2). His villa curiously resembles a modern museum in that
dislocated fragments coexist in one place (8). But, we can only consider this as souvenir
collecting rather as a historically-orientated perception of the value of old artefacts. In any

case, Hadrian's villa should be considered as only a marginal case amid a massive Roman-
ization of architectural development in all territories under the Roman empire.

1. 3. THE RENAISSANCE AND ITS REPERCUSSIONS

The Italian Renaissance of the 15th century has been often referred to as the precur¬
sor of modernity (9). As the term Renaissance indicates it was a cultural regeneration in
the light of Classical antiquity. For the first time in history, explicit reference to a past era
on a comprehensive scale was taking place. Man was placed at the centre of the universe
and the Renaissance culture was juxtaposed in its full spectrum to the preceding Gothic

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10-
era. The Catalan architect Ignasi de Sola-Morales in a lecture given at 1977, dealing with
the problem of architectonic intervention as a problem of interpretation, characteristically
argues that the Renaissance par excellence adopted

-...a dualistic awareness of history, in which there is a mythicized past which is

Antiquity and another gloomy, negative reality which must be rightly conceived
as the counter image of that positive reality embodied by Antiquity, which is
the whole reality of the city and the Medieval constructions. (10)

Sola-Morales refers subsequently to conformitas as a conscious activity to achieve

coherence of the new and the old, or as a way of critically interpreting the old in order to
define and shape the modem. On the other hand, new architecture is always seen as imita¬
tion of an ideal model. As he puts it:

The interventions, punctual or more intensely unitary, always mean the attempt
to make a new reading of this already existing built reality in order to intervene
in it with a specific tool which is the project of architecture, in order to, through
this intervention, attain the unification of the city space. (11)

The conversion of San Francesco church at Rimini into a temple for the Malatesta
family by Alberti (Fig. 1. 3), is a clear example of the tension created between the Renais¬
sance ideal model for a temple and an already existing Gothic building (12). Alberti was

conscious of this tension between old and new architecture and dealt with it in his treatise

De Re Aedificatoria. But he mainly exemplified his concern for integrating Renaissance

and existing Gothic architecture in all his projects, which were interventions in existing
buildings. Such interventionswere carried out at Santa Maria at Gangalandi, Palazzo Rucel-
lai, Santa Maria Novella and Capella Rucellai, to mention a few (13). In his description of
an ideal town, he also argued for the preservation of the Roman ruins, which are con¬
sidered as an integral part of his ideal town (14).

The architectural historian Manfredo Tafuri approaches the Renaissance in a similar

way to that discussed here and points out that:

-...one of the best lessons to be learnt from Brunelleschi's humanism is its new

conception of the pre-existing town as an available and passing structure, ready

to change its global meaning as soon as the introduction of compact architec¬
tural objects altered the balance of the Romanesque-Gothic "continuous narra¬
tive". (15)

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11 -
 Tafuri, in short, sees the Renaissance architecture as having been able to compromise
with pre-existing settings in the sense that even partial intervention is enough to show the
prevalence of Renaissance architectural qualities over the multi-stratified Mediaeval texture
of the cities. Tafuri thus ascribes to the Renaissance the role of the first dehistoricizing
architecture, creating rupture between past and present.

We agree with Tafuri that indeed it was the Renaissance that mainly contributed to
the formation of our contemporary problematic relationship with history. But we cannot
accept that the relation of old and new in architecture at the Renaissance period was as
conscious a problem as it is today. Architectural intervention during the Renaissance, based
on geometrical perspective and centrality of space, even at a smaller scale, was enough to
prove that reason and humanism were the cornerstones of the new universality in juxtapo¬
sition to the theocratic Mediaeval society. Rationalism was enough to sustain the apparent
gap. The Renaissance had the power to bifurcate history and for this very reason dehistor-
icization was not a problem at that time. It was the strong credo of an era that created an
intended change from old to new and this cannot be paralleled to the contemporary situa¬
tion, where rupture between old and new is conceived as an inherited problem.

Tafuri describes the relation between old and new architecture during the Renaissance
as dialectical, in the sense that the new succeeds the old. He distinguishes between com¬

plementarity and dialectical relation, since he adopts the term "dialectic" in a Marxian
sense as the rivalry of the "good" Renaissance against the "bad, barbaric" Gothic (16).
This is exactly the point which differentiates the Renaissance from the contemporary situa¬
tion. Today, old and new are considered as dialectical in the original meaning of the term,
as of equal importance, yet opposing each other. Today we really do not know if the new
is better compared to the old and this ambiguity creates the problem and remains with it.

1. 4. THE AGE OF HISTORY

The self-sufficiency of the Renaissance, based on the Classical heritage, survived

even the Baroque era. After that, Classical ideals and models could accept no more

development and this necessarily led to periods during which revivalism, scepticism and
romanticism were added to the Renaissance humanism and became ingredients of the con¬

temporary situation. The notion of "antique" in particular was originally a conception of

the 19th century which still survives today.

The beginning of the 19th century is characterized by a tendency towards historiciza-

tion of human knowledge, which gradually became a main characteristic of the times.

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12 -
During that century, the age of historicism par excellence, a new turn to antiquity was ini¬
tiated and neo-Classicism became the prevailing style. But this time it was considered to
be remote from its sources. Historical consciouness made it possible for neo-Qassical fas¬
cination to develop in parallel with the the first proclamation for the preservation of monu¬

ments, which took place in France in 1794.

During the 19th century the first museums opened in Europe. The preceding industrial
revolution and its aftermath had a devastating effect on human settings. Cities grew at an

unparalleled rate and urbanisation advanced in a manner that was uncritical of local charac¬
teristics. The development of communications and the zoning system in town planning des¬
troyed the old cities and their traditional characters gave way to rising capitalist investment
in standardization. The Romantic movement represented a reaction to this situation and
went back to the Mediaeval model to trace and re-establish social integrity.

In architectural aesthetics of that period two antithetical schools prevailed. Viollet le

Due (1814-1879) in his "DICTIONNAIRE" argues for the architecture of France from the
11th to the 16th century. His restoration projects manifest a return to the purity of the
Gothic style (17). In contrast to Viollet le Due's approach to architecture as a program and
a structural system, John Ruskin (1819-1900) adhered to an organic attitude towards
momuments. Ruskin argued that buildings follow the human life cycle of birth-growth-
death and that monuments should be allowed to decay in a natural way.

In Italy, Camillo Boito (1834-1914) sought a compromise between the two attitudes,
arguing that any addition or alteration to an already existing artefact should be
differentiated from it (18). In this way, past and present could equally claim their values.
In the restoration of Titus' arch in Rome and in the reconstructions of the Roman agora he
had already seen for the first time a conscious distinction between the old, authentic parts
of a building artefacts and the new additions. Valatien and travertine were used for the
reconstructed members of the buildings in juxtaposition to the original white marble, while
unrelieved friezes, unfluted columns and simplified ornamentation characterized each newly
added member.

Boito argued for the uniqueness of every monument and postulated the differentiation
in terms of materials and morphology between every new addition and already existing
monuments. This integrated approach with the proclamation against fake reproductions or
additions to authentic monuments has been considered as the fundamental thesis of modern

restoration. The Athens Charter of 1931, the Venice Charter of 1964 and the Amsterdam

Declaration of 1975 came later to complete the framework concerning architectural heri¬
tage, its conservation and its relation to new architecture (19).

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13 -
 There is little doubt that the major shift in theorizing about the relation between old
and new in the man-made environment was due to what Riegl later called "the cult of
monuments". This focus on monuments, which was formulated in the age of historicism as

compensation for the growing dangers of urban development, was to affect considerably
the development of architecture.

One major change in the appreciation of architecture was that buildings were not any
more conceived of as solitary objects, conveying the principles of their times. Instead, they
were considered in context, which necessarily carried values of the past as well. The emer¬

gence of the picturesque endowed architecture, at least in its depiction, with a "natural"
context, whether this was nature or existing settings (20). Architectural novelty was now
seen against its context whether as imitating it or contrasting to it (21). In 1836 Pugin, in
his "Contrasts", compared Mediaeval buildings to revivals, talked about "optical pollution"
and architectural novelties "irrelevant" to their context (22).

1. 5. THE EMERGENCE OF MODERNISM

Debate on the culture of monuments was the main theme of the 19th century that sur¬
vived in the 20th. The Classical idea of mimesis, was the dominant notion in art history
and aesthetic appreciation. However differently from the Classical times, the artist of the
Enlightment consciously followed the same path as the Classical artist.

Some radical changes occurred in Vienna at the end of the 19th century and the dawn
of the 20th. Gottfried Semper in his attempt to categorize works of "minor" arts, such as,

textiles and furniture, according to their function, following Cuvier's new taxonomy, came
to realize the problems and subsequently the inadequacy of the style typification as varia¬
tions on the Classical theme (23). Art was divorced from the artistic objects of the past,
typified in styles, and came to embrace artistic activity in its full spectrum. Based on these
observations, Alois Riegl reconsidered the historic hypothesis of styles and argued for a

theory of aesthetic perception instead of a theory of art-objects.

Art by the end of the 19th century was no longer considered passive imitation but
creative production. Within this context, another decisive point for the advent of Modernity
was the Romantic movement, which emphasized the closeness between man and nature and
rejected nature as a model for art. Artists should express their senses rather than subordi¬
nate to the Classical ideal (24). The philosophy of Fiedler, Riegl's theory and the experi¬
mental psychology of vision in Vienna were only the inevitable consequences of these
changes in art theory (25).

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14 -
 Art as novel creation, and kunstwollen, the will for art, as the means of every culture
to approach reality - implying the relativity and openess of every kunstwollen - were the
basic strongholds of a new approach to art and art objects. Art as imitation within a cycli¬
cal historical process gave way to modernity. As Sola-Morales argues:

The culture of modernity apparently detached from its historical roots, tried to
understand and to make form according to its own vision of history, which was,

precisely, the history of vision.(26)

1. 6. "THE MODERN CULT OF MONUMENTS"

A brief account of Riegl's theory will illuminate and put in context the culture of
modernity. At the turn of the century Alois Riegl, curator of the Vienna museum, in dis¬
cussing the role of monuments, distinguished between historic values and contemporary
ones. For Riegl, all the works of the past were considered valuable. For this reason his
views are particularly relevant to our argument (27).

Dealmalswert, monument value, in Riegl's terminology, is the quality of intentionally

commemorating a specific event in history; deliberate monuments are characterized by this
quality. Denhnalswert, as a temporal quality in an established setting, of whatever scale,
refers to the appreciation of a specific monument in history which itself claims immortality
through the preservation of single human deeds or events connected with them. In Riegl's
terms a monument makes "a claim to immortality, to an eternal present and an unceasing
state of becoming" (28).

The kunst-historiches, artistic-historic, quality in monuments refers to the appreciation

of a particular stage ill the life of a setting, according to the current interpretation of history
at each time.

Alteswert, age-value, refers to the quality of antiquity for its own sake. It refers to the

historicity of an artefact, or a context as a whole, qua antique. Age value is solely due to
the passage of time, and it is independent of the original value that a work of art had at the
time of its creation.

According to Riegl, Denkmalswert was initiated by the Renaissance and it was origi¬
nally restricted to Gassical monuments which were thought to be of permanent value. The
19th century, the age of the historicism, sought to protect all historic buildings. In an era
dominated by the idea of historical development every step in cultural development was

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15 -
considered irreplaceable. The emergence of historicism as a product of the Enlightment
was to define the irreplaceability of every stage in the human enterprise. During the 20th
century the past came to be anything old, anything not contemporary. Henceforth what we
refer to as diachronic values today, and in this study in particular, encompasses this
broader, comprehensive appreciation of the past, where anything already existing is worth
consideration and critical evaluation.

The establishment of the kunsthistorish.es value allows virtually all periods of art to
claim their own independent significance without entirely abandoning the belief in ideals
according to the kunstwollen of a particular time. Yet, the ideals of the 19th century,
according to which the kunsthistoriches value was attributed to monuments of the past,
were not at all unrelated to the art and culture of this period. The notion of Kunstwollen
denotes for Riegl this cultural horizon of an era which dictates both, the expression in con¬

temporary art and the appreciation of a particular part of the past alike (29).

If denhnalswert is a monumental value of permanent significance urging to be imitated

and kunsthistorisches a selective attitute to the past leaving space for revivals today, age
value is purely a value incapable of being redeemed. It can only be appreciated in contrast
to new architecture. Preponderance of the age-value marks the eclipse of imitation as a

principle in the creation of art With relativity characterizing the contemporary condition,
modern architecture is left without precursors, open to research and everyday practice but
also in desperate need of roots.

The diagnosis of age value in our century by Riegl is of great importance in our

attempt to trace the development of the notion of imitation and contrast in the creation of
architecture. Riegl's age-value can be the touchstone for the distinction between historic
and present-day values.

Contemporary values for Riegl are the use-values, referring to the current practical
and utilitarian needs, and art-value. Art-value refers to the intellectual and spiritual needs
coined by Riegl kunstwollen. Kunstwollen, literally meaning the will for art, emerges as a

selective filter ascribing relativity to what every era recognizes as its historical and contem¬
porary values. This relativity of the kunstwollen is exactly what renders interpretation of
the past so important in order to relate appropriately to it.

What deserves our attention is the dialectical structure of age-value as a comprehen¬

sive characterization of historic values and present-day values as everything relating to
today. Age-value as the final stage of historic values is the development of the previous
denkmalswert and kunsthistorisches values and in a sense embraces them without totally

comprehending them. Riegl himself realizes that in artefacts today we may find

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16 -
monumental and age-value together or historical and age-value or all three together. The
dialectic structure of these qualities alone is enough to legitimise contrast as a value of the
20th century established in juxtaposition to the past. The other important feature in Riegl's
theory is that age-value and present-day value are interrelated, or rather they constitute
aspects of the present-day kunstwollen. This kunstwollen forms the common denominator,
what in Chapter Five we will discuss as the third term of dialectics, of what diachronic
values are to be evaluated and what contemporary values to be expressed in art. It necessi¬
tates an active perception of the past in the light of, and in strong relation to, what is new.

Kunstwollen embraces all aspects of a particular culture and constitutes what Gadamer
calls the fusion of the horizons for a particular society.

1. 7. THE VALUE OF CONTRAST IN "THE BRAVE NEW WORLD"

Vienna witnessed the basic break with tradition and the beginning of modernity. Ini¬
tiated by Wolfflin, as the culmination of the reaction to the theories of art objects, it
expressed the complete opposite; the shift of importance from the art object to the subject
who appreciates art. For Riegl, in particular, the subject is permeable by history and cul¬
ture. The emergence of modernity thus closes a circle starting with the Renaissance's plac¬
ing of man in the centre of the universe and culminating in Riegl's theory, where man has
the power to produce knowledge and not just reflect reality.

Formalism marked a major shift of focus from the work of art as dependent on the
artist and his ability for mimesis, to the work of art itself and its appeal to human subjec¬
tivity. It was inaugurated in Vienna, but it was in post-revolutionary Russia that it was ren¬
dered into praxis. Independence of art was to reinforce human emancipation and accelerate
future orientated progress. Radical changes in technology and technology of materials in
particular, in economy and in politics, were aspects of an emerging new world.

Modernity in Europe followed the path of early formalism and constructivism in

post-revolutionary Russia. In El Lissitzky's "victory over the sun" whatever could be
differentiated from the past was automatically better and more suitable for modem society.
The Modem Movement adhered excessively to this principle. Right from the beginning, it
established itself more in terms of opposition to the past than in its own terms. El Lis-
sitzky emphasizes the verticality of modem architecture as opposed to the traditional hor-
izontality, and new purposes in contrast to old, and he regrets that:

Just as in the past, houses follow a continuous street line, as if the individual
lots of private owners still existed. (30)

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17 -
 Everything new was emerging as an anti-. Anti-monumental, anti-academic, anti-
decorated, were instances of the new ideology. Le Corbusier's "Towards a new architec¬
ture", written in 1923 is a manifesto pleading for modernity. What is important for our pur¬

poses in the modem horizon, is that architecture as an art traditionally pertaining to the
realm of mimesis, is now totally directed towards contrast. Contrast to the past constitutes
the visually grounded aspect of an antithesis between modem and past architecture. This
visual aspect of opposition, relating to new discoveries in the psychology of vision in
Vienna, was to acquire major importance through the notion of transparency.

The notion of "transparency" fashioned with the new materials out of the extensive
use of glass and light metal constructions, was to be extended from the qualities of the new
materials to the realm of knowledge. Phenomenal transparency, related to Cubism and the
early Dada invention of photomontage, was to be one of the decisive qualities sought for
and acknowledged in the modem world (31).

Modem architecture could not but express this new world. In its attempt to justify its
existence in contrast to the historic core of the old European cities, it introduced the idea of
context. The context of new architecture was introduced and established in architectural

representation, as a negative background in visual terms, to be permeated by the new build¬

ing. Lissitzky wrote that even one modem building was enough to transform an old city
and Le Corbusier's idea of "planting" modernity was equally pervasive and powerful (32).

Sola-Morales, in discussing the concept of "contrast", argues that Le Corbusier's pro¬

ject for the centre of Paris in 1936 interpreted historic architecture without repudiating it.
He quotes Le Corbusier commenting on his project:

-...the new modem dimension and the showing to advantage of historic treas¬
ures, produce a delightful effect (33)

But, even if historical architecture was the point of departure, reference and counter-

image of modem intervention, it is hard to accept that it was interpretation in a positive

sense. Although historic cities were necessary for Le Corbusier to measure Modernity
against, it is far more probable that contrast was not a way of appreciating the past by crit¬
ically opposing to it, but rather that of opposition for its own sake and as its only merit
(34).

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18 -
 1. 8. FROM CONTRAST TO ANALOGY

Contrast, in terms of materials, forms, or the ideology they express, dominated

Modem architecture as the means of opposition to traditional architecture. In an imperfect
dialectical sense, the modem was considered to be of positive value, while the historic was

negative. For that very reason, modem architecture and historic settings cannot interact on

an equal basis. Contrast as analogy was to come when historical architecture, the architec¬
ture of established settings, acquired equal importance with the new. Analogy became the
new paradigm only when Modernity could no longer be supported by euphoria about the
future, when the creation of the new had to be mediated in a hermeneutic horizon where
the historicality and the relativism of understanding and creation were evident.

Contrast as a response doing justice to both old and new appears in the Fifties in
Italy. In the historically dense Italian cities and villages, the modem is appreciated not for
its intrinsic qualities but in contrast to the existing settings. Restoration had been along this
path long before, but it was only when it appeared in architecture after the Second World
War that attention was paid to the quality of contrast. Terragni's peoples house in Como
(Fig. 1. 4), is a characteristic example of new architecture justified because of its contrast
to the old.

To begin with an existing building and create a modem place, to be modem and
fit into the existing, to base one's work on the existing and not simply level
everything-this was a giant step ahead. (35)

The Modems started with the attempt to completely rebuild the old cities but after the
catastrophe of the Second World War there was a turn-back to historical tradition and a

gradual abandonment of Utopian ideals. The originally envisaged universality of geometry

and function gave way to piecemeal intervention. Under this relativisation, what used to be
the result of modernisation (namely that of contrasting to the old settings) was now adopted as
the aim. Contrast was no longer just an aspect - and then not the most important - but the
focus of modernity. The problem was and still is evident. Is contrast enough to renew his¬
toric settings? Or else in what sense could it be a creative response to established environ¬
ments? Even if the tools of modernity are still there, the system of using them is lacking
and that creates the present predicament

19 -
1. 9. THE TWO FACES OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

By the beginning of the 20th century modernity had well established its main strong¬
hold that art is not imitation but creation contrasting to whatever the past had produced
before. As a consequence, architectural form came to be significant on its own as a crea¬
tion out of nothing and different from the past forms. A new formal vocabulary, based on

pure geometrical forms and primary colours, was supposed to liberate architectural mor¬

phology from the reiteration of the Classical repertory and the stylistic patterns of the
academy. For the functionalists though, modern architecture could only reach universal rea¬

son and validity through function. The architectural program, expressing the content of
architecture, was considered the only real basis for the new architecture.

This opposition between formalism and functionalism characterized the Modem

Movement in architecture right from the beginning. It was first expressed as the antithesis
between the formalists and the constructivists in post-revolutionary Russia and since then
it has not been resolved. This antithesis can be expressed as follows. Should the Modem
Movement, in opposition to the previous eclecticism, seek for a new formal system devoid
of any traditional connotations and references, culturally neutral and therefore universal?
Or, was pure functionalism, perhaps, the only reliable basis for the new architecture? How¬
ever antithetical these tendencies within the Modem Movement, they both aimed at a
universal system for architecture and a break with history (36).

The Italian architect Giancarlo de Carlo, provides a short but excellent discussion of
the contemporary predicament as a natural outcome of the congenital schizophrenia of
modernity.

-...on the one hand, the abstractions of statistical calculation, technological

hazard, and formalistic sophistication; on the other hand, the pseudo-realistic

attempt at rationalizing everything, thus complying with all the expectations of

capitalist speculators and state bureaucracy. Similarly, the conceptual level also
broke into two parts: on one hand, rejection of the everyday, the personal, and
different; on the other exaltation of the universal standardization, and
unification. This dualism (in a movement that aimed at making architecture
universal) robbed human beings of the chance of using architectural language to
express themselves, to communicate, and to organize and shape their space to
the measure of their individual and social existences. (37)

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20 -
1. 10. AFTER THE MODERN MOVEMENT

Some of the pioneers of the Modern Movement had attempted to remedy the situation
and often had found themselves in radical divergence from the proclamations of their mani¬
festos. Some other architects had never espoused the Modern Movement. Le Corbusier,
Alvar Aalto, Aldo Van Eyck and Jom Utzon were some of the former group, while Frank
Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn can be taken to represent the latter group. Architects from
both groups became aware of the antithesis between means and ends in modern architec¬
ture and searched for a new paradigm for new architecture in its local context. As Aldo
Van Eyck has expressed it:

-...architects have been harping continuously on what is different in our time to

such an extent that they have lost touch with what is not different, with what is
essentially the same. (38)

These architects gave the inspiration and showed a way out of the problems created by the
Modern Movement.

During the Fifties and the Sixties, and in parallel with a passing euphoria and a fresh
futurist outlook, the modernistic image came under criticism. Contrast as the blueprint of
modernity had produced monotony and meaningless multiplicity and the self-sufficiency of
the modem architectural object had created rupture with the historic setting and the local
contexts. Post-modernism has since attempted the recovery of meaning. Robert Venturi's
empirical approach to popular diversity and Aldo Rossi's rationalist approach towards a

recovery of urban memory marked the frame of the Post-Modem field. As a counterpoint
to the Modem concept of contrast, Venturi argues for adaptation and assimilation to popu¬
lar imagery, while Rossi argues for the analogic city. In other words Rossi is seeking for a

new universality to imitate and Venturi for a fashionable way of following popular trends
and culture.

Post-Modem architecture craved for a return to analogy. Criticizing Modernity but

not totally away from it, it sought to establish bonds with historic settings. In terms of
forms, memories, functions and socio-cultural values, imitation is introduced alongside the

already established contrast. Contrast thus becomes a way of responding and not imposing
while the new architecture seeks compromise, absorption, legitimatization and discourse
rather than imposing monologue and formal or functional rhetoric. The aim of architecture
still remains to recover the loss of place and the establishment of continuity. Imitation and
contrast will be used in this thesis as our conceptual tools to relate past and present in
many ways. A continuity is needed not only in visual and utilitarian terms but also con¬
cerning the memories, the dreams and the culturally significant aspects of the built

-
21 -
environment, which are part and parcel of socio-cultural interaction and human collectivity.

1. 11. IMITATION OR CONTRAST? A (FALSE?) DILEMMA AND THE CON¬

TEMPORARY SITUATION

So, it seems that whatever the inner conflicts of modem architecture or, perhaps,
because of them, an abrupt break with history has resulted. As Norberg-Schulz observes:

Monotony and chaos are apparently contradictory phenomena, but at a closer

scrutiny reveal themselves as interrelated aspects of a more general crisis which
may be called the "loss of place". (39)

In order to compensate for the loss of place and due to the increased awareness of
the lost qualities in the built environment, a massive conservation attitude has evolved after
the Second World War. So, the contemporary scene witnesses a bifurcation in the process
of architectural development. On one hand, market dominated urbanization irrelevant to the
local settings; on the other, increased policies to protect the past from new architecture in
it.

It is ironic that the contemporary search for continuity has resulted in a series of pas¬

tiche, reproductions and fakes which negate contemporary times as much as the past ones

they are attempting to be coherent with. Contrast, on the other hand, has resulted in a self-
referential state. The world of imitation and the world of contrast are kept apart in the con¬

temporary architectural debate and contemporary architectural practice. The former is

represented mainly by copying and pastiche, while the latter relies upon the world of high¬
tech engineering. Both attitudes are too one sided to be considered satisfactory. In most of
the historic centres of Europe and North America stubborn conservation which neglects the
contemporary needs, is worlds apart in theory and practice from uncritical commercial
architecture. Yet both attitudes coexist in the same setting, the same street, the same place,
the same building. For instance, in London, carefully preserved Victorian buildings coexist
with R.Rogers' high-tech Lloyd's bank. One can argue that this situation is exactly our

contemporary identity, a split one, expressed by antithetic philosophies, attitudes, practices

and image: those of a well preserved past and of pure commercialism. But if this is the
case why is there so much dispute over the problem of contemporary architecture in old,
historic settings? Why is there a problem?

On one hand modern architecture seems incapable of recovering the loss of place; on
the other, the historic buildings, which play a vital role by providing stability, reference

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22 -
and familiarity in our environments, cannot stand for ever, however well preserved they
are. However well preserved, they cannot provide stability, reference and familiarity in our
environments for ever. Commercial buildings will finally be the main theme and the loss of
place an undisputable fact. Irrelevant Modernism or contemporary architecture with bor¬
rowed existence will finally be empty rhetoric. Glass buildings using as a pretext for their
responsiveness to their setting by reflecting their historic surroundings will finally reflect
other glass buildings. The self-referential attitude of Modernism will finally deprive us

from our anchorage in place.

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23 -
 CHAPTER TWO

THE REHABILITATION OF IMITATION:

A REVIEW OF THEORIES CONCERNING THE RELATION OF

NEW ARCHITECTURE TO HISTORIC SETTINGS

2. 1. THEORIZING ABOUT THE RELATIONS BETWEEN NEW AND EXISTING

ARCHITECTURE

In this chapter we will examine the theoretical work of Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi
and Colin Rowe. Venturi's theory is more a "look at a theory"; Rossi's theory is a con¬
sistent yet unsystematic body of profound intuitions on the meaning of architecture, while
Rowe's theory is the most systematically constructed, however far from precisely defined
and intelligibly exposed. So, we can call all these "theories" only if we can allow for a

very general definition of a theory.

The relevance of these theories to this thesis will be evident in the following exposi¬
tion and critical appraisal of them. Conversely, their critical appraisal will be done vis a vis
the purposes of this thesis. Yet, some general points can be mentioned to indicate why they
are examined here. All three theories deal with the antithetical qualities of architecture in
an attempt to rehabilitate the past and remedy the contemporary situation. Whether these
theories aim at a synthesis of these antithetical qualities, or they just appreciate the dialecti¬
cal interaction between them, they neverthelss deal with the relation of new to old architec¬
ture in a way congenial to the one adopted in this thesis. They all deal with the relation of
new to old architecture in a profound sense and they all provide critical observations about
the possibilities of a contextually meaningful architecture.

2. 2. ROBERT VENTURI AND THE RECOVERY OF AMBIGUITY IN ARCHI¬

TECTURAL FORM

The American architect Robert Venturi in his seminal book "Complexity and contrad¬
iction in architecture" deals with the antithetical qualities of architectural form (1). In

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24 -
contrast to the modernistic purism he advocates a pluralistic attitude, where ambiguity is
considered the real value of architectural creation. In his "gentle manifesto" Venturi states:

I am for messy vitality over obvious unity. I include the non sequitur and pro¬
claim the duality. (2)

and elsewhere:

A valid architecture evokes many levels of meaning and combinations of focus;

its space and its elements become readable and workable in several ways at
once. (3)

Venturi rejects the straightforward, the determined, the complete in itself architectural
form and seems to be in favour of the ambiguous and the pluralistic, which characterizes
everyday reality. He clearly proclaims that the fallacy of modernity has been the search for
purity in terms of functions and forms. This opposition to modernism becomes eloquent in
his appreciation of the Classical temple. Le Corbusier had expressed his appreciation of
Classical architecture as follows;

The Greeks on the Acropolis set up temples which are animated by a single
thought, drawing around them the desolate landscape and gathering in into the
composition. Thus on every point of the horizon, the thought is single. It is on
this account that there are no other architectural works on this scale of grandeur.
We shall be able to talk "Doric" when man, in nobility of aim and complete
sacrifice of all that is accidental in Art, has reached the higher levels of the
mind: austerity. (4)

For Venturi the Greek temple is appreciated for quite the opposite reasons:

_...aesthetic simplicity, which is a satisfaction to the mind derives, when valid

and profound, from inner complexity. The Doric temple's simplicity to the eye
is achieved through the famous subtleties and precision of its distorted geometry
and the contradictions and tensions inherent in its order. The Doric temple could
achieve apparent simplicity through real complexity. When complexity disap¬
peared, as in the later temples, blandness replaced simplicity. (5)

Venturi prefers what is central yet directional, big yet small, open yet closed, pure yet
distorted. He prefers what finally results in a potential ambiguity. But although he

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25 -
 acknowledges, in quoting Empson, that ambiguity is not always a virtue, he offers no cri¬
teria for evaluation. Venturi's approach remains an unconnected multiplicity of architectural
expression. What remains important despite these reservations is that he clearly breaks with
modernistic purity in order to overcome the duality between the rich historical and popular
repertoire and the bareness of modem buildings. By advocating the coexistence of contrad¬
icting elements, he attempts to rehabilitate history in a pluralistic sense, but nowhere does
he show what elements are in contradiction and in what sense.

Venturi's approach attempts to recover morphological multiplicity in contemporary

architecture; multiplicity in terms of materials, colours, as well as, of references and mean¬

ings to address human reality forgotten in the abstraction and the geometric purity of the
modems. His insights are of particular importance to our study, insofar as they seek to
relate contemporary architecture to the richness of the historical layers of the urban fabric.
Architecture in Venturi's view should not be revolutionary and heroic. In contrast to the
utopianism of the Modem Movement, he proposes the ordinary, the casual and real as it
appears, for instance, in the main street of the American city. He remains sceptical of any
sort of order and advocates instead that:

_...abstruse architecture is valid when it reflects the complexities and contradic¬

tions of content and meaning. Simultaneous perception of a multiplicity of lev¬
els involves struggles and hesitations for the observer, and make his perception
more vivid. (6)

In general, for Venturi, truth in architecture is bound with duality. Thus, Venturi's
ironic attitute to architecture, recalls the mannerists' capricci, and is as remote from truth as
from any search for rational objectivity and unitary method.

Although Venturi's contribution towards the communicative - and therefore humanis¬

tic - dimension of architecture must be acknowledged, reservations and objections arise as

to how these levels of multiple reference are interrelated in a meaningful way for the local
context at a given setting. What initially appears, in his buildings, to be an openness to the
public realm, finally fails to be powerful enough to suggest and evoke multiple readings in
a self-generating sense. Venturi's architecture is multisided and multireferential but fails to
keep an identity amid this pluralism of forms and meanings. If the dynamics of the main
street environment is what he is after, he clearly imitates the final image and not the pro¬
cess behind it, which resulted in this multiplicity . If architecture is to relate to an esta¬
blished environment, it should rather do so in such a way that while addressing contextual
levels, it could never fail to present an integrated whole, a complete statement of its inten¬
tion to relate and the way it attempts to do so, in order to renew it.

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26 -
 In a recent interview Venturi announced that the extension of the National Gallery in
London is being conceived in Elizabethan style. It remains with the architect to answer the
questions: why Elizabethan? and what could Elizabethan possibly express today? Even if
approaches like this can be succesful in some cases, they certainly cannot suggest any con¬
tribution to the general problem of contextual urban renewal.

2. 3. ALDO ROSSI AND THE REDEMPTION OF URBAN MEMORY

Aldo Rossi's "Architecture of the city" appeared in 1966 and it has been since then
the basic text dealing with the problem of urban history and urban memory, as two
different routes to the past (7). Urban memory, for Rossi, as a rather subjective redemption
of the past, came to compensate for the loss of a rather objective history (8). Rossi's
analysis of the temporal qualities of the cities remains of fundamental significance, as far
as contemporary intervention in historic cities is concerned. His proposed neo-rationalistic
typology however has raised considerable dispute. Rossi's view of the analogic city sug¬

gests clearly a rehabilitation of the local elements in terms of a typology which goes

beyond specific localities. Analogy, as an approach to architectonic intervention, suggests

the importance of the imitative aspects of contemporary architecture alongside the dominant
contrasting ones, embedded in modernity. Analogy, as a mode of relating new architecture
to old implies a will for a creative dialogue with the past in the place of the modern pur¬

ity. Rossi's analogic city is similar to, but also different from the historic city and as such
it respects both the unity and the diversity of urban life, for every socio-cultural entity.
Although Rossi's theory remains unsystematic (9) and highly subjective, he manages to
introduce into the debate about contemporary architecture a temporal perspective in its full
spectrum of dimensions and nuances.

What is important in Rossi's theory for our purposes, is his insight into the temporal
dimension of the city. In his rejection of self-sufficient modernity he seeks to rehabilitate
the temporal dimension in the urban environment He takes for granted the separation of
object and subject, (i.e.architecture and architect), and seeks instead to discover the essense

of architecture in its process. The process of architectural development qua urban history
acquires fundamental importance. The city becomes an autonomous entity with its self-
generative forces acquiring ultimate significance. Until the 19th century, architectural
development was considered to follow natural laws and ever since the laws of historicism.
Rossi proposes the idea of urban memory instead. History exists only as long as a building
is being used and its fonn relates to its function; after that, history shifts to the realm of
memory. The Roman amphitheatre which determined the shape of the central public space
in Lucca belongs to the memory of the place today and is there as its real quality. The

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27 -
series of transformations which happened to Diocletian's palace in Split are also indicative
of the duration of forms, while memory is being embedded in them.

The importance of architectural form, so dominant an issue in the Bauhaus manifesto,

gives its place, in Rossi's theory, to the process that a form is going under. Changes of
use, modifications, transformations of the urban fabric and additions to it, are considered to
be more important than architectural form itself. Every building is a carrier of multiple
transformations due to socio-cultural life. Rossi makes that clear when saying:

An investigation of the meaning of the relationships between the singularity of

form and the multiplicity of functions was the principle object of this study. I
still believe today that this relationship constitutes the meaning of architecture...
Buildings are seen as structures that have formed and still are forming the city,
offering the maximum adaptability to new functions over time. (10)

Meaning in the urban environment resides not in the forms, but beyond them to their
"life" as history and memory. Architecture is not the visual image of the cities but the con¬

frontation of precise forms with time. So, architectural form is important because of its
specific function at a particular time, but also because it permits other functions, at
different times, as well. Rossi clearly shifts emphasis from the morphological and spatial
quest of the Modems to the urban events which legitimize architecture. He tries to define
architecture as an organic process and to introduce the importance of time in understanding
and contributing to the urban reality of cities.

In his essay "Architecture and the city: past and present" he wrote in 1972:

Whether urban or natural setting, the question cannot be posed solely from the
point of view of the relation between old and new, but from the point of view
of the necessary modification which is produced with every intervention. In any

case the relation with the surrounding world (Umwelt) cannot be an operation
of camouflage or imitation; if it is, it is a sign of inadequacy and cultural weak¬
ness, whose effects can only be negative. (11)

Rossi's contextual concern is evidently far reaching and profound. He seeks the
essence of a place not in its image but in its life process. He comes to realize the creation
of buildings in their becoming; the forces which shape them, the events which modify
them and the life which sustains them. He considers them responsive to human life. He
expresses this eloquently:

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28 -
 In reality architecture is formed with all its history; it grows with its own

justifications and only through this process of formation does it fit into the built
or natural world which surrounds it. It works then, through its own originality,
it establishes a dialectical relationship; then it shapes a situation. (12)

Carrying the importance of the urban process to its extreme, Rossi invents a typology
of pure geometric form. Since meaning goes beyond form, the more abstract architectural
form can be, the more catalytic it will be for invention and multiple memories. Rossi seeks
to avoid types loaded with any particular historical significance. He wants types open to

history. Types which mean something are dead and unresponsive to a life process, which is
to come. For this reason he introduces pure geometric types so unreal as to be capable of
gathering meaning and fill up with memory. Rationalism for Rossi is the best way to
understand irrationality and unreal types to address real life. In the formulation and imple¬
mentation of his types there is a need to avoid any specific history in order to address and
anticipate all history, and a need for no specific scale so that his typology to be responsive
to all scales. Rossi's types are a-historical and universal.

The dialectic relationship of type and history remains an internal matter for architec¬
ture, which is separated from the architect If modernity attempted to create a heroic image
of the architect, the role of the architect for Rossi is almost obsolete since what is impor¬
tant is not the final architectural object but its vitality due to the multiplicity of its possible
uses and meanings. Buildings are vehicles for events and not frozen images of them; they
actively participate in everyday life and they do not simply follow it.

Rossi dwells on another significant dimension of time, namely, the constructive

dimension of time alongside its destructive one. Time conceals rational types and time
again reveals them across history. As Rossi expresses it:

Thus the temporal aspect of architecture no longer resides in its dual nature of
light and shadow or in the aging of things; it rather presents itself as a catas¬

trophic moment in which time takes things back. (13)

An appreciation of Rossi's theory necessarily raises objections about the role of the
architect Eisenman acknowledges this in his preface to Rossi's book when saying: "This
redefinition of the architect as a neutral subject is problematic" (14). Indeed Rossi ascribes
to the city a rather idealistic autonomy and self-propelling ability through history. His types
acquire a pivotal role to propell the past into the present or anticipate the future. Rossi's
concept of the neutral architect can only be justified as an overeaction to the heroic

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29 -
architect of the Bauhaus. Yet he still acknowledges that the architect is finally the catalyst
for the re-emergence of types and their implementation in construction, while in relating
new architecture to old:

Every operation carried out in historic centres entails a judgement, and this
judgement must be given in the first place in the terms of urban analysis and
architecture; situations are too various to be generalized about. (15)

Another objection related to these points, is that Rossi is reluctant to consider the his-
toricality of understanding in general and of the built environment in particular. He clearly
attempts to anticipate the future, while he can only be within the limits of a horizon
defined by the present. Nostalgic of the future as he appears to be, he creates it in advance.
The Modem Utopian seems to persist, only this time it appears to emerge from a timeless
past.

In seeking to address metaphysical typologies, as the only permanence amid the con¬
stant process of architectural development, Rossi does not pay adequate attention to the
immediately important local situation in the settings he builds into. His buildings become,
because of that, far too eclectic and elitist. Although his analysis of the cities hints at and
addresses the profundity of urban life, his buildings fail to articulate a meaningful state¬
ment in their specific context and his autobiographical reading of history scarcely results in
communicative buildings engaged with local spatial and temporal qualities.

History is full of examples of buildings surviving their original use and outliving
their original use. But all these buildings were, at least at the time of their creation,
genuine expressions of the times, then subsequently legitimized in the following periods of
time they survived. Rossi's types, in contrast, belong everywhere and for that reason

nowhere in particular. Their intention to go beyond history places these types more com¬

fortably in history, since they relate only to the time of their creation. They remain monu¬

ments of events that never happened! Rossi's types aim at permanence through their repeti¬
tion but this alone is not enough to validate them.

A repetitive typology alone is not sufficient to generate meanings in the built environ¬
ment. Rossi's interpretation of historic settings in terms of recurrent types and their poten¬
tiality to acquire several meanings across time cannot be taken as a justification for his pro¬
posed typology, or as a suggestion for new achitecture in historic settings. Rossi seems to
equate his personal reading of the process of architectural development with the process
itself. We can illustrate this point by using here one of his analogies.

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30 -
 In his "Scientific autobiography" Rossi recalls that in pursuing the experience of this
permanent quality of repetition he used to go to the cinema when the film was half over or

just ending in order to:

_...meet the characters in their conclusive moments...rediscovering the action

that happened earlier or imagine an alternative. (16)

Although his personal adventures suggest a highly creative reading of films it is dubi¬
ous if this could be a suggestion for film making. Were films made incomplete, Rossi's
personal reading, if possible, should become problematic.

2. 4. COLIN ROWE AND THE COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE HUMANISTIC

VIEW OF HISTORY AND THE LIBERAL UTOPIA

The theory developed by Colin Rowe and the Cornell School of Architecture can be
considered as the most comprehensive attempt to deal with the relation of contemporary
architecture to existing settings.

In dealing with the Modem movement and the work of Le Corbusier in particular,
Rowe as early as 1947, came to realize the problems of modernity (17). The normative,
rational and liberal Utopia of the Modems, by the Sixties, produced rapture with the his¬
toric centres and a discontinuity in human life. At the Cornell School of Architecture,
Camillo Sitte's "town planning according to artistic principles" became the subject/object
of extensive study and the theory of contextualism was gradually formulated in projects
and theses (18).

According to this theory urban space is divided into two types, the traditional space
considered to be carved out of a solid traditional mass and the Modem space considered to
be Le Corbusier's "city in the park". The traditional city fails to meet our needs for open

space and autonomous artefacts; the Modem city, the city in the park, lacks the profundity
and the vitality we associate with urban experience. On the basis that the coexistence of
both spaces could solve the dualism and reconcile the traditional with the Modem in the
urban realm, contextualism basically seeks to introduce the communicative dimension in
architecture and a gesture of consent to its mimetic element alongside its plea for contrast
(19).

Modem artefacts had been considered as complete in themselves, in the manner of

the vest-pocket Renaissance Utopias. Dealing with ideals and prototypes Modem

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31 -
architecture had forgotten how to conform to the site. Thomas Schumacher wrote charac¬
teristically:

It is precisely the ways in which idealised forms can be adjusted to a context or

used as collage that contextualism seeks to explain and it is the systems of
geometric organization which can be abstracted from any given context that
contextualism seeks to divine as design tools. (20)

The design tools of contextualism appeared in a thesis explaining the nature of the
void as figure and the solid as ground (21). Deformation of ideal types could happen only
through their very coexistence with the traditional urban fabric. Interaction and coexistence
of unrelated or familiar things in alien contexts in the manner of cubism and collage
became the main strategy for juxtaposing established contexts and Modern ideals. But now

the ideal types were not new creations of the mind, as they were for the Moderns, but a selec¬
tion from the most celebrated periods of European architecture. In Colin Rowe's and Fred
Koetter's book "COLLAGE CITY", contextualism theory, in the form of a speculative
field, is presented and the following discussion will basically refer to that.

The Modern Utopia once again is defined as the departure point for contemporary
architecture, although a profound need for a new interpretation is acknowledged. The main
dualism that this Modernism carries, is the one between science and people or in Rowe's
words:

_...for this was a city (the modern) in which all authority was to be dissolved,
all convention superceded; in which change was to be continuous and order
simultaneously complete. (22)

And furthermore:

-...modern architecture professing to be scientific displayed a wholly naive ideal¬

ism... Or, alternatively, modem architecture, professing to be humane displayed
a wholly unacceptable and sterile scientific rigour. ... For the two increasingly
desperate obligations of the architect- on the one hand to "science" and on the
other to "people"-continue to persist;... Let science build the town and let the
people build the town are both of them profoundly neurotic. (23)

The basic thesis of contextualism formulated out of this duality is:

32 -
 A proposal for constructive dis-illusion. It is simultaneously an appeal for order
and disorder, for the simple and the complex, for the joint existence of per¬
manent reference and random happening, of the private and public, of innova¬
tion and tradition, of both the retrospective and the prophetic gesture. To us the
occasional virtues of the modern city seem to be patent and the problem
remains how, while allowing for the need of a "modern" declamation, to render
these virtues responsive to circumstance. (24)

The changelessness of the Renaissance Utopia and the progressivism of the Modem
Utopia seem to be the two poles of the architectural pendulum.

Utopia may instruct, civilize and even edify the political society which is
exposed to it. It may do all this, but for all that it cannot any more than the
work of art, become alive. It cannot, that is, become the society which it
changes and it cannot therefore change itself. (25)

The contradictions of the Modems seem to be recapitulated in the problem of putting

together contradictory ideas; a combination of progressivism and classicism, evolution and
perfection, Utopia and freedom. In such a predicament there are two ways out: "utopian
myth and the reality of freedom or, the reality of Utopian and the myth of freedom" (26).
Architecture should mediate between the city as theatre of memory and the city as pro¬
phecy. Without prophecy we do not have hope, while without memory we do not have
communication. So there is a need for the processejof anticipation and retrospection to be
complementary, and for novelty to be related to the known, mundane and memory-laden
(27).

Rowe argues throughout his book that the whole theoretical debate and specifically
the problem of dualities penetrates the planning debate. Traditional city vs modem city,
space vs object, accident vs archetypes, void vs solid; and as far as the architect is con¬

cerned, "scientist" of the Versailles vs the "bricoleur" of the villa Adriana - Versailles

being the typical example of central vision Utopia, while Tivoli represents the accumulation
of set pieces in collision. As far as the architect as scientist or as a bricoleur is concerned,
Rowe explains:

_...the artist is both something of a scientist and of a bricoleur but if artistic

creation lies mid-way between science and bricolage this is not to imply that
the bricoleur is back ward. It might be said that the engineer questions the
universe while the bricoleur addresses himself to a collection of oddments left

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33 -
 over from human endeavours but it must also be insisted that there is no ques¬

tion of primacy here. Simply the scientist and the bricoleur are to be dis¬
tinguished by the inverse functions which they assign to events and structures as

means and ends. The scientist creating events by means of structures and the
bricoleur creating structures by means of events... If this is the situation...then
why should this dialectical predicament be not just as much accepted in theory
as in practice. (28)

So, the strategy of bricolage or of collision city emerges. Ideal types can be fused

together with existing settings to produce their own dialectics. Piranesi's Campo Marzio
can be considered the archetype of this strategy (29) (Fig. 2. 1). Collage can be considered
a further elaboration of die politics of bricolage if the latter is intended differendy from a

capricious attitude. According to the approach chosen, each object can retain its identity
while gaining a new impact from the context.

The dialectic interaction of Utopia and tradition as the only reservoirs for human life,
seems to constitute the hub of contextualism. The dialectics of new and old remains

unresolvable because both are equally important. There is no such a thing as a synthesis
for contextualism; only coexistence, and there is nothing wrong about it For Rowe, Utopia
and tradition : "Whether separately or together, positive or negative have been the ultimate
servicing agents for all the various cities of science and people "(30).

The dialectics of opposing realities, that is, between the reality of tradition and the
reality ot Utopia, seems to be the ultimate human situation: a constant oscillation between
order and freedom. In this sense contextualism offers profound insights for the critical
examination of the problem of how to relate contemporary architecture to existing settings.
Dialectics between what is there and what is introduced must be kept alive if architectural
process is to keep up with socio-cultural life. Nevertheless, the design strategy of Rowe's
contextualism seems inadequate to achieve a balance within this laborious process.
Utopia must supersede the existing reality - in Mannheim's terms - but this does not mean
that it can be the same everywhere. Utopia has to be differentiated too, since its a-

topicality must relate in antithetical terms to the topical idiom and in this sense it is hard to
agree with the contextualists' credo that:

The objects can be aristocratic or they can be folkish, academic or popular,

whether they originate in Pergamum or Dahomey, in Detroit or Dubrovnic,
whether their implications are of the 20th or the 15th century is no great matter.
(31)

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34 -
 Contextualism being a theory in the sense of a broad speculative inquiry into urban
dialectics, defies any criticism in the analytical tradition. More specifically it defies its
refutation on the basis of its contradictions since it is an attempt to show the positive value
of realities acknowledged as opposite, for instance the reality of Utopia and the reality of
tradition. Any critical remark could only emerge on the same speculative level if it is to
be constructive towards the contradictory truths postulated by contextualism. Yet, it should
not fail to identify errors or false truths. Acceptance of opposing truths does not mean
uncritical legitimation or an impasse for validation (32).

Novelty and change, professed by modernity, are human needs and the Modem
Movement in architecture expressed these needs and still constitutes our only resource
towards that end; but it must be endowed with a responsiveness to the local. Current move¬

ments, such as post-modernism and neo-rationalism, to mention two, although they criti¬
cally expose the illusions of the Modems, have no alternative, but to feed on it. Contextual¬
ism attempts to mediate between social perfection and social continuity by the incremental
insertion of the modem Utopia, with further possibilities either to be absorbed by gradual
modifications in the context or acting as a collage. A discourse between ideal objects and
pragmatic contexts is attempted by using the whole arsenal of modem object typology as
the only way towards urban renewal. According to Kevin Lynch, Colin Rowe ...

_... manipulates applied symbols in a free and eclectic way meaning by such
allusions to deepen the symbolic resonance of his buildings. Under the fond
illusion that meaning resides in the object, he plays an esoteric game, whose
messages may shortly be exhausted or become incomprehensible once the shock
is over. (33)

In all the projects of the Cornell school we find the implementations of fixed types
as, for instance, the "linear type" (34). These types are to be inserted in the traditional con¬
text and afterwards to be modified in trying to achieve unity with their context. At the
same time they will introduce the Modem Utopia into the traditional contexts, as a means
of changing them and rendering them contemporary.

The question which remains unanswered throughout contextualism as a theoretical

do
discussion and a strategy for design is: what about the derivation of the types? Where;these
types or ideals or fragments of Utopia come from? What about their dimensions and levels
of dialectical interaction with the fabric of the historic city?

Rowe's references to Popper do not help, because the modem fallacy of architecture
as science seems to creepTagain despite Rowe's arguments that architecture is between

-
35 -
science and bricolage. The scientific analogy is inadequate to explain the process of
OnA
architectural development. Science progresses by explaining more and more^by testing new
theories. A new theory takes the place of an earlier one, if it explains more phenomena that
its predecessor. It cannot be the same with arts and architecture in particular, where
aesthetic criteria are always historically and culturally determined without reference to
objective data and quantified reality.

The concept of the existing traditional city as a two-dimensional canvas of solid-void

serves the abstraction needed for the insertion of the set-pieces. Even if we accept Rowe's
dialectical process between typology and context there can be much dispute as to the possi¬
bilities of such an interaction. Dialectical interaction is an active process of assimilation
and for that reason every typology must have the prerequisites to establish such a dialogue.
Here again, we have to emphasize that the opposites must have a communicative basis, in
order to establish a dialogue. Furthermore these opposites must be complementary at the
same level, for their dialectics to be revealed; otherwise any new element selectively
chosen could be justified through dialectics. One further quality of the opposing elements
must be their equal importance. They must be opposing realities not a reality and its nega-
be
tion. Dialectical opposites must ensue from their interaction and not assumed as such.

The figure-ground plan of cities does not offer the best possible comprehensive field
towards establishing a convincing dialogue between the existing settings and architectonic
intervention. In general, contextualism seeks another universal method for intervention

instead of searching for local contexts and local Utopias. Even if the local identity is
addressed through various modification of the types, we cannot accept the value of any

pre-conceived type independently of the place where it is going to be inserted, no matter

what modifications it is going under. It makes no difference if the realm of ideal types
consists of the world's most celebrated "set-pieces" as, for instance, types of the Italian
Renaissance. These pieces do not necessarily "add" meaning to cities in North America.

Collision, collage and final resolution cannot happen necessarily, because of some
intrinsic value of the types, or if they can indeed, wherever ideal types and any setting are
juxtaposed, we no longer talk of the value of collage since the whole merit goes to the
value of the types and not the way they are modified to relate. The cubists' notion of col¬
lage, so often referred to in "Collage City", refer!to the synthetic elements of collage, the
way these elements are interrelated and interacting to create a unity. Disparate objects,
selectively chosen, cannot necessarily - and indeed should not - constitute a collage syn¬
thesis, if collage is to remain a creative act.

In the Minneapolis project there is a profound concern to mine architectural history

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36 -
for prototypes in order to change the existing context. Fragments of Padua and Isola Bella
are ' - used as the "set-pieces" of Utopian fragments. In this project, formal and monu¬
mental attitudes are revealed. Criticism seems to be surprisingly easy.

Even if we accept architects' tendency or fascination for monumentality, for some

reason the problem remains as to how this result can be achieved. First of all, a communi¬
cative basis must be established so that any statement from the artist, as for instance indica¬
tion for monumentality,^to be of some meaning. This holds true even if we want to create
something alien and contrasting to a specific context. Acknowledgement of the context
must precede every intervention whatever the intention of the intervention should be. The
context could be the social, cultural or spatial dimension of a setting to whatever degree of
the adjacent buildings and the specific user or the cultural identity of the whole setting and
so forth. In any specific project, we cannot accept that fragments of Padua will have any
meaning and there is no obvious reason why they should have. The neutral grid of the
American cities does not imply that we can introduce anything and Padua fragments cannot
be considered as something more than anything else.

Following the same argument we cannot introduce Hadrian's villa somewhere else in
the world for several reasons. First of all, why is Hadrian's villa considered of objective,
undisputable value? Even if it is somehow, why should it create equal fascination, or be
considered potential enough to enrich any other place? In any case, how many types like
this can an urban tissue resist?

If Rowe does not make use of the specific, historical - and unique - significance of
the type, then what is it that qualifies this type as significant? On the other hand, if he
makes use of its specific characteristics then what are the connections with the different
contexts, where does it intend to be applied? These questions hold true and stubbornly
haunt the use of all types and parts of them. Types out of context can only create a city
museum and this kind of substitution of the life process of a setting by a static image of
phenomenal plurality, can only infer rupture between socio-cultural life and its environ¬
ment. It might create an interesting allusion and could even be appropriate in a certain
case, but it does not - and cannot - constitute a strategy for urban renewal. If a type is to
be relevant for a setting, a dialectical process between this type and its context must pre¬
cede and penetrate the process of its formation. It has to be partially shaped by the context,
before it can communicate with it and subsequently change it

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37 -
2. 5. THE NEED FOR A SPATIO-TEMPORAL APPROACH

TO CONTEXTUALISM

In discussing the theories of Venturi, Rossi and Rowe, we have come to realize the
most important shortcomings of the Modem Movement in architecture for the present
study. It has become evident that a redefinition of contemporary architecture in relation to
its past is necessary, in order to assess the situation and stimulate proper intervention in
historic settings. Venturi's insights draw attention to the antithetical values in architecture
and advocate the reconsideration of architectural qualities lost due to the "scientific" rigour
of Modernism. Rossi argues for the coherency between old and new that ensues after a
proper understanding of the architectural process. Rowe reconsiders the Modem ideals in
relation to existing contexts. These approaches are indicative of the broader field of the
Post-Modem debate and cover a number of theories for the reconstruction of the city. What
they show us is that a new theoretical framework is needed to address the problems of
contemporary architecture (35).

All three theories deal in their own way with the problem of relating the new to the
old in architecture through the redefinition of the new in the light of the old. They all argue

for a dialectical relationship between contemporary architecture and established environ¬

ments, either in formal terms (Venturi) or in terms of history and memory in the diachronic
urban process (Rossi) or in terms of Utopian ideal and freedom in human reality (Rowe).
Venturi helps us to re-evaluate ambiguity in architectural form and understand its inner
dialectics, Rossi helps us to understand that the essence of architectural heritage resides in
its process propelled by permanent types, while Rowe guides us to reconsider history in
order to legitimize Utopia.

The limitations of each theory also deserve our attention. Venturi argues that the
"main street architecture" is good and does not provide any suggestion as to how contrad¬
ictions on several levels are to be interrelated in a building, so as to receive a multiplicity
of meanings without loosing its identity. He gives no indication on how ambiguity and
complexity as positive qualities are to be safeguarded against chaos and haphazardness.

Rossi, in his buildings, becomes very selective when it comes to addressing the urban

memory of a place. Aiming at an objective memory, he fails to acknowledge the multipli¬

city of temporalities which characterize every place. His abstraction of the temporal quali¬
ties of places into selective types finally reduces the vitality of places and remains mean¬
ingless monumentality. Furthermore, meaning for Rossi resides only in history and
memory and the best any contemporary architectural novelty can do, is to revive the
memory of the place.

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38 -
 Rowe softens the Utopian ideal in terms of scale and intervention process but fails to
relate a particular place to its particular Utopia. Rowe's Utopian fragments are so alien to
the specific localities that any engangement is impossible or at least equally possible with
anything else. The context and its history for Rowe remain as a background and not a

creative source. We do not imply here that novelty comes totally from what is there
already, but rather that not any novelty will do anywhere. For Venturi there is no Utopia,
for Rossi it is hidden in the urban memory while for Rowe it is always important as a

change agent, through collision, collage and final assimilation to established environments.

This discussion provides the background for the approach proposed in this thesis. A
theoretical framework is needed to encompass the above contributions so that novelty in
historical environments could be communicative, meaningful and important. Imitation of
the past, on whatever level, is equally important as contrast to it, on the same level of con¬
sideration. Anchorage of any architectonic intervention to the past of its specific locality, is
equally important with the anticipation of future architectural development.

Rossi tries to establish a permanency in the built environment through the repetition
of archetypes established in an axiomatic sense; Venturi tries to establish the ephemeral as
permanent; and Rowe tries to borrow the permanence of the past. In terms of imitation and
contrast, Venturi's buildings contrast with the purity and coherence of single buildings in
order to imitate -in one building- the complex vitality of the urban environment. Rossi's
buildings contrast with the image of the city, in order to imitate what he considers to be
the essential permanent characteristics of the cities, which are hidden, transformed and may
be forgotten, but are nevertheless alive. Rowe's urban projects contrast with the existing
plan only in order to imitate the process of absorption into the process of architectural
development.

What appears to be problematic, is that imitation and contrast are used as widely and
vaguely as they could be. Both notions achieve such a wide range of meanings that they
are finally rendered meaningless. If Venturi imitates the main street and the billboard, how
is his architecture to be conceived as ambiguous as he appears to intend? It is not ambigu¬
ous, it is the architecture of the provincial American city. If Rossi wants his types to
address the essence of urban history and memory, and not the image of it, why does he
render timeless archetypes as historically appearing artefacts? Finally, if Rowe intends to
imitate the dynamics of urban development through collage, what are the qualifications of
his ideal types for such a purpose?

In the light of these problematic issues a redefinition of imitation and contrast as

modes of relating contemporary architecture to existing settings is needed, so as to operate

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39 -
in a contextual consideration aware of local qualities, particular characteristics and a unique
identity. A profound and far reaching discourse has to be established if architectural
novelty is to become as important and meaningful as the existing architectural heritage.
Such a confrontation between new and old could be the best possible filter for the
redefinition of existing settings and the reconsideration of new contributions to them. The
following chapters make some proposals towards this end.

40 -
 CHAPTER THREE

THE IMITATION - CONTRAST DIALECTICS

IN RELATING NEW ARCHITECTURE TO OLD SETTINGS

3. 1. INTRODUCTION - CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

In this chapter we will attempt to formulate a dialectic theoretical schema between the
notions of imitation and contrast. The relations between new and old architecture could

then be considered and described more adequately as instances of the dialectical interplay
between imitation and contrast.

Imitation as an attitude implies an intention for sameness with something, whether we

refer to the designer's intention or the interpreter's, as far as the product of imitation is
concerned (1). Contrast on the other hand implies an intention for difference. Again, con¬
trast is not whatever cannot be considered as imitation; if such would be the case even

indifferent attitudes could be taken as contrast. Contrast is used in this study as an inten¬
tional attitude either the designer's side in his
on
attempt to produce new architecture, or
on the intepreter's side in his attempt to understand and evaluate new architecture in old
settings.

Imitation and contrast, as well as other attitudes which could be conceived as 'in

between', with imitation and contrast considered as dialectic opposites, imply relation to

something. Whether we imitate something or contrast to it, we nevertheless relate to that

thing one way or another. The notions of imitation and contrast in that sense arise as
dialectical entities in relation to a common context which unites them and provides the
basis for their opposition to operate.

A theoretical account of imitation and contrast in their full philosophical implications

and dimensions are beyond the limits of this study. Nonetheless, a theoretical discussion of
them will put the specific problem of architectural renewal in a broader perspective and
provide a useful basis towards a solution.

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41 -
 The notion of identity is here used in relation to the notions of imitation and contrast,
i.e. the ability and the quality at the same time of something to be recognised as an imita¬
tion to some extent of something while at the same time is also recognisable as a contrast
to it. In other words, it will be conceived as identity of the new architecture in an old set¬
ting the property of being itself while relating to the broader context where it is being
grafted and belongs to. Imitation in that sense bestows sameness and renders something
familiar, recognizable and meaningful in context i.e. in relation to what it imitates, while
contrast in an already recognised thing bestows difference and renders it individualistic and
meaningful because of its particularity within its context

A central question to the whole debate is: Who intends to imitate or contrast and who
judges the result? The architect's role, as it is conceived in this study, is to present an
intentional attitude towards relating new and old in the built environment, although in the
end the new building itself vis a vis its context will be interpreted and evaluated by people
experiencing it
wilh
Imitation and contrast thus are the conceptual toolsrwhich we assess the relations
between new and old architecture. In the first part we will deal with the importance of imi¬
tation in artistic creation -why imitation, as well as a consideration of imitation and its
context-what is being imitated, in relation to the problem of how do we imitate after hav¬
ing defined what do we have to imitate - how to imitate.

As far as we consider the relations between contemporary architecture and old set¬
tings, we have first of all to consider what should be related i.e. What aspect, part or
dimension of the old setting is to be the object to be imitated in new architecture. Further¬
more we have to consider how to imitate, because even if what is to be imitated is
defined, several imitational responses are still possible. In the final part we will suggest a
dialectic conceptualization of imitation and contrast and will examine the potential of their
interplay in relating new architecture to old.

3. 2. THE NOTION OF IMITATION

3. 2. 1. MIMESIS BEFORE PLATO

The notion of imitation can be traced back to the Latin imitatio and the Greek

mimesis. By exploring the meanings it has acquired in the course of time in relation to the
arts we can justify and show the importance ascribed to the term in the present essay. This
discussion of imitation in its full spectrum of meanings and connotations seems important

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42 -
for the purposes of this study especially because imitation as a term has been misused and
abused extensively by architects in their attempt to justify their new architecture in old set¬
tings. It is not totally far from truth also that imitation sometimes implies a pejorative attri¬
bute.

Mimesis was a very popular term in ancient Greece and embodied all sorts of
different meanings. Etymologically, it is the acting of a mimos, and it was generally attri¬
buted to mean, and still in modern Greek means, somebody who expresses something by
acting.

Connected originally with the Dionysian cult of expressive ritual mimicry in the
dances of priests signified the 'expression of feelings and the manifestation of experiences
through movements, sounds, words' (2).

Later with the gradual transformation of the Dionysian cult into the Apollinian (3),
the term came to mean 'acting' in a theatrical sense. During the classical period its mean¬

ing shifted from the expressive arts to the constructive ones, of which architecture was the
most important (4). This shift was followed by a third one which attributed to mimesis the
meaning of likeness of appearences in paintings and words, shifting the meaning of
mimesis from expression to representation (5).

Heracleitus was probably the first to employ the term mimesis to describe the imita¬
tion of nature in her ways of action (6), followed later by Democritus who not only related
art and nature through mimesis, but also defined art as dependent on nature, in accordance
with the second meaning of mimesis, i.e. how do we build and construct things imitating
nature's ways (7).

Before Democritus but belonging to the same Dorian tradition, in opposition to the
Ionian theorists of nature, Pythagoreans dealt with the establishment of objective mathemat¬
ical canons in art in the model of music. For them mimesis in art was synonymous with
the imitation of harmony inherent in numerical proportions which regulated the cosmos (8).
Rhythms were likenesses, homoiomata of the psyche, through which psyche conformed to
nature (9). Art was a formal manifestation of mathematical proportions which were unique
and objective and mimesis the expression of their inner character (10).

Parmenidean philosophy inaugurated a decisive turning point in the history of philo¬

sophy. It separated the 'way of truth', the objective essence of things from the 'way of
seeming', the appearence of things perceived by the human senses. This dualism is the
basis of the relativism which later was employed in the aesthetics of the Sophists, who
moved away from naturalistic philosophy and centered their philosophy upon man (11).

-43 -
The famous Protagorean motto 'man is the measure of things' marks a shift towards
humanization in philosophy and art shared also by Socrates. For the first time the arts, as

purposeful products of man, are considered to be opposed to nature. The Sophist Gorgias
went so far as to say that all representations are illusions and mimesis creates such illu¬
sions. For the Sophists, tragedy, by means of legends and emotions, creates a deception in
which the deceiver is more honest than the non-deceiver and the deceived is wiser than the

non-deceived. In tragedy and in painting those are best who are the best at leading into
error by creating things which resemble real ones (12).

So, for the Sophists mimesis of real things although apate, i.e. deception, hallucina¬
tion or delusion, acquires a creative character and a positive value. This creative character
of mimesis liberated it from dependence upon nature and inferiority towards her. Through
the humanistic, relativistic philosophical framework of the Sophists mimesis was not just
copying a part of nature but adding, transforming and improving on her as well.

Socrates distinguished between arts that create things which do not exist in nature and
arts which have an imitative and representational character. Arts of representation, in their
attempt to imitate nature, compensate for their partial view with a selection of elements and
a idealization of the work of art. Mimesis came to mean representation in the form of
copying reality through selections having^mind an aim at an ideal form (13).
Art in Socratic terms acquired a humanistic character and became capable of express¬

ing individuality. Mimesis ceased to be an abstract notion and referred to physical things.
But, nevertheless Socrates distinguished between a thing beautiful in a rather objective
way, of perfect form eurhythmon kat eauton and a thing which was beautiful due to its
puiposefulness and utility eurhythmon pros ton chromenon (14). So, mimesis for Socrates
{lie
was representation, reproduction of reality and bearer of its ideal image at same time.

3. 2. 2. PLATO ON MIMESIS AND ARTISTIC CREATION

In the Platonic writings we find all the diverse meanings of mimesis. Ranging from
the most significant appraisal of the arts in the Symposium to the sheer condemnation or
them in book X of the Republic, we rather find in his work a sort of negative definition of
art and mimesis. Through the discussion of particular attempts at definition, represented as
opinions of the Sophists but no doubt Platonic dilemmas as well, mimesis acquired in
Plato's dialectical approach a comprehensive theoretical framework. Plato's deep concern
in condemning mimesis of reality in art as copying of copies, twice remote from the real
world of 'ideas', reveals the strength of his belief in the value of mimesis in artistic crea¬
tion. It is because he acknowledges something beyond mere copying in mimesis that makes

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44 -
him continue and advance the debate towards defining and describing it.

The Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos in his thesis on Platonic aesthetics

attempts a re-reading of the Platonic works by adopting a dialectical framework where the
notion of play is attributed a positive role in artistic creation (15). Andronikos' dialectical
methodology claims a close relevance to our approach and for that reason we will draw on
his work for a while. He clearly breaks with the German idealist tradition of Kant and
Hegel and interprets Plato's "ideas" as fictional dialectical entities rather than in any spiri¬
tual sense. Plato's ideas, Andronikos argues, are only conceptual creations which neverthe¬
less endow with meaning any inquiry towards them.

Platonic dialectics despite their indefiniteness are considered as ontologically

significant. Plato, as interpreted in this thesis is neither the idealist that the German Roman¬
tics wanted to see in him, nor the logician that English analytic philosophy has suggested
(16). Platonic dialectics are here considered as inquiries open to the world. What often
appears as contradictory in Plato's discussion of art is nothing but part of the dialectician's way
towards the "truth" in art, whatever that might be.

Apparently Plato found the resolution of his inquiry within a continuous dialectical
process recalling thus the Heracleitean way of theorizing. Plato's discussion is not static
and what is more important it does not aim at a final objective and positive definition.
Employing a dialectical approach, Plato rejects several accounts of mimesis, but finally is
presented again with the aporia, no end, no limit (17). This kind of aporia does not sug¬

gest the ignoramus ignoramibus motto of the agnostics, but rather presents a dynamic
mode of inquiring leading the debate to an ever creative level. The ambiguity and the open¬
ness of the Platonic aporia is what we are left with while the solution in Plato's eyes must

lie on a meta-dialectical level of inquiry, however fictional that may be (18). It is in that
sense that the 'ideas' for Plato present just a dialectical feature, a tool in his inquiry about
things, a fictional end and not a definite, deontological telos (19).

Mimesis for Plato is like a mirror (20). It reflects images of images, yet it is attri¬
buted a creative role in the arts (21). Through mimesis art is able not only to follow and
repeat nature but create as well what nature lacks. The expressional quality of traditional
imitative arts such as dance shifted to the quality of being different from reality (22). In
one of his classifications Plato distinguishes between productive and imitative arts (23). In
Cratylus mimesis is a symbol which cannot help in scientific knowledge (24). Neverthe¬
less, Andronikos argues:

It is its own being, aiming at its own telos. Platonic thought starts to be directed
to the limit where aesthetic and cognitive phenomena are separated. (25)

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45 -
 The imitator cannot get scientific knowledge through imitating. Mimesis is not spoudi,
serious endeavour for the discovery of things, but play (26).

Plato's thought captures the dialectical process which imitation and contrast imply.
Similarity and difference, image and soul, reflection and thing, are but instances of the
above dialectics. He starts condemning mimesis as mere copying of reality which does not
offer anything. He then acknowledges positive values ivi it and again refutes it in the ideal
city. Mimesis in the Platonic dialogues is not something definite but rather a powerful
theoretical field which is constantly revealed and concealed in our attempt to interpret a
work of art as mimesis. The original parallelism of mimesis with the mirror has vanished to
give its place to a fresh representation of the world, to a new creation. This new creation is
derived from what the imitator is imitating, but yet is something new (27).

The dialectics of the opposites in a never ending quest (28), is what constitutes the
essence of the Platonic approach to the notion of mimesis. Art for Plato in its way to imi¬
tate and through that to create, is but play (29), and although play is considered the oppo¬
site of spoudi, i.e. serious scholarship, nevertheless 'only the play of art is the most techn¬
ical and the most graceful play of man' (30). Play and spoudi are thus different states and
their diametrical opposition proves their affinity (31). Play is not spoudi in the sense that it
is aimless and does not follow any systematic and logically consistent methods but
nevertheless it is spoudi in the sense that describes adequately the mimetic process.

Play is even claimed to acquire higher seriousness than spoudi (32). Spoudi
represents the dogmatic Plato who aims at a logical explanation, while play represents the

sceptic Plato who understands the indefinite nature of things. Play and spoudi represent an

antinomy and not a contradiction. Contradiction is one thing and antinomy another, i.e.
contradiction is the logical opposition, while antinomy is struggle and rivalry of opposing
ways to truth (33).

3. 2. 3. ARISTOTLE ON MIMESIS AND ART

Aristotle in his systematic discussion of mimesis and art adopts the same assumption
as his master Plato: art is the mimesis of nature (34).

For Aristotle arts either complement nature with what she is unable to do or imitate
her in what she has done (35). Arts in his thought achieve a indisputable creative status
and mimesis has not at all the meaning of slavishly copying but rather is able to produce
things uglier or more beautiful than they are in nature. So there are three ways of imitating
nature:

1. Imitating to produce mimemata as they are found in nature.

-
46 -
2. Imitating to produce mimemata better than their natural model.
3. Imitating to produce mimemata worse than their natural model (36).

Aristotle goes so far as to accept even the introduction of the impossible in art argu¬

ing that plausible impossibilities are to be preferred in art to implausible possibilities (37).

In his famous definition of tragedy we find emphasized the original meaning of

mimesis as free acting, which encompasses both a representational and a creative dimen¬
sions.

What is of great importance to our study is that mimesis for Aristotle is the means
and the end of the artist. Mimesis alone distinguishes an artist from a non-artist. But the
artist is not supposed to copy material reality as it appears in the everyday world. His task
is to imitate in order to recreate the inner character of reality, what aestheticians as Groos
called innere Nachahmung, inner imitation (38).

There is no doubt that Aristotle conceives the notion of imitation in the context of the

tragedies where the actor imitates (assimilates and expresses) reality and the degree of
similarity to it determines the evaluation of his performance.

Even if reality is conceived in a comprehensive sense, including the expression and

the compassion of the human soul, nevertheless art is subjected to rational laws of evalua-
tioa Art in its Aristotelian sense offers its mimetic character as the most objective criterion
for its evaluation (39). Mimesis in creating art is considered as spoudi, i.e. serious scholar¬
ship and conformation to objective laws of logic.

Art is conceived as a science the object of which is the katholou, the catholic, univer¬
sal, permanent and logically coherent laws of nature (40). Aristotle reacting to Plato's con¬

ceptualization of mimesis and art as play, attributed to artists the duty of introducing order
and reason to the chaos of everyday human activities. The everyday world, for Aristotle is
a haphazard, trivial, transitoryancl arbitrary one and the artist creates out of this a cosmos,
an ordered whole. The Greek scholar Ioannis Sycoutris intelligently remarks that perhaps
this is the reason why Aristotle thought of the drama as the best of the arts. It is in drama
more than in any other art that an austere, logical coherence is needed to address simul¬
taneously different people (41). From the hybrid everyday reality which is loaded with all
sorts of rational and irrational activities, feelings and passions, the dramatist must create
ordered human situations which must be recognised by all spectators even if the logical
coherency presented is unreal. In that sense drama, addressing human life in the most
direct way, has to achieve the most difficult task of all arts in being accepted by all human
beings, the life of which is imitated on the stage.

-
47 -
 Perceptional objects for Aristotle contain in themselves their essence, the katholou
and their imitation is not considered as being copies of copies of the real. The artist is not
away from truth.

3. 2. 4. THE MIMETIC APORIA

Artistic creation for Plato can only be conceived as representation of "ideas". As the
German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer argues:

-...it is part of the nature of mimema that it represents something different from
what it itself contains. Thus mere imitation, being like, always offers a starting

point for reflecting on the ontological gap between the imitation and the origi¬
nal. (42)

Plato argues that art through mimesis represents the original but this is not to dimin¬
ish the value of mimesis. Representation for Plato is recognition of the original and this
implies that a mimic situation not only involves what is represented being there, but also
that it has in this way come to exist more fully. Mimesis not only represents but also
brings forth the original acquiring a revelatory character.

So mimesis is representation but this does not affect its cognitive and creative value
since, after all, all knowledge for Plato is representation and recognition. By recognition
we are able to grasp the essence of the original. Recognition in Gadamer's words is that
kind of representation which leaves behind everything accidental and unessential (43).

What constitutes the ambiguous point in Plato's theory of imitation is the remaining
gulf between the original and the mimema which calls for a metaphysical explanation,
although an unavoidable one.

Aristotle, on the other hand, argues for the autonomy of art which is considered to be
a conscious production based on knowledge and general rules (44). Art for Aristotle is a
precise science, which by employing logical clarity, coherence and necessity, aims at imi¬
tating and presenting the ideal forms of nature and not the typical, everyday, pragmatic
ones which are full of generalities, typicalities and logical inconsistencies. The notion of
katholou, which guides mimesis as a logically based serious attempt (spoudi), is where
Aristotle squeezes in his metaphysical assumptions. Gadamer , interpreting the Platonic
mimesis along the same lines with our previous analysis, criticizes the Aristotelian
approach as follows:

-
48 -
 (Aristotle) is based on the presupposition of a thing in itself with which the
intellectual notion - be it mere reproduction or independent creation - can

correspond. Only if the necessity of this correspondence is guaranteed by a

principle in one way or another divine. In epistemology the presupposition of

this thing in itself was profoundly shaken by Kant; in art theory a similar view
was proposed by Alois Riegl... Thus the opposition, between idealism and
naturalism..., must in final analysis appear as dialectical antinomy. (45)

The other important issue raised here is that for Plato an artist produces a work of art
i.e. the artist is a maker, while it is the dialectician (i.e.the intellectual) who complements
the work of art. The intellectual recognises, interprets and understands it as a representation
of its original. It is important to stress at this point that nowhere the possibility is excluded
of the artist being the interpreter (the dialectician or the intellectual) as well.

Beauty is not achieved in the work of art itself by its interpreter. Art for Plato needs
participation in order to be rendered meaningful and it is in that sense that mimesis alone is
useless (46). Plato condemns art as an end in itself and tries to find its evaluative criteria
in the intellectual interpretative process.

For Aristotle art is important in itself, not as a means to beauty. For Aristotle mimesis
is an all encompassing concept which establishes an objective framework for art (although
he defines it nowhere) (47).

Mimesis for Plato is the means for the intellect to grasp the truth. Art is only justified
in its interpetation, where mimesis finds its place. Aristotle thought of art as a systematic
approach to truth, a science which follows the laws of logic. For Plato, art is a never end¬
ing inquiry, a ludic process.

3. 2. 5. THE CLASSICAL AFTERMATH

All subsequent accounts of mimesis attempt a compromise between the Platonic and
the Aristotelian approaches. Philostratus in the context of the extreme subjectivism of the
Stoics praised more than any other the imagination of the artist who by being free to
choose and fuse together themes, becomes more effective in rendering the truth (48).

For the Stoics, subjective eurythmy became more important than symmetry and the
part in a woik of art is justified per se and not as an integral part of the whole. Generally
speaking, during the Hellenistic era the representational dimension of imitation is less
important, while the expression of the artist's soul, the artist's imagination is considered to

-
49 -
be of the greatest importance in mimesis.

For Cicero the exemplar, i.e. the model or the idea, exists in the artist's mind. What
has been for Plato an abstract and transcendental mental form, for Cicero exists inside the

artist's mind. Imitatio for Cicero is the active manifestation of concrete perceptible forms,
i.e. images in the artist's mind (49).

The basic assumption of art as the imitation of nature survived all accounts on

mimesis and only in Horace's discussion of mimesis the object of imitation shifted from
nature to its own body. The Aristotelian imitation of nature, Horace's point of departure,
turns to imitation of art itself (50). In the Renaissance artists imitate nature and the glorious
ancients and this is considered the same. Pope in his essay on criticism expresses it elo¬
quently:

"Those rules of old discover'd, not devis'd

Are nature still, but Nature methodiz'd

Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem;

To copy nature is to copy them".(51)

Dubos, Gottsched and mainly Johann Elias Schlegel represent the main thinkers of
the Neoclassical stream who dealt with the notion of imitation based on the Aristotelian

tradition which emphasized the creative nature of imitation. Schlegel postulated that imita¬
tion could even be dissimilar to the original and advocated the partial and intentional
departure from the model. The original and the degree of similarity between the original
and the product of imitation are left open to the free choice of the imitator. Imitation for
Schlegel is just the means to an end, which recalls the main Platonic issue. For Schlegel,
the aim of imitation is set outside the work of art in the sense of pleasure aroused to its
interpreter.

As he expresses it:

Imitation necessarily brings about order by virtue of the fact that it produces
agreement between the relations of parts of an imitation and those of the origi¬
nal. Order also arises even if the original does not have internal order...
_...when I observe order, I have a sense of pleasure; and so, when I observe

similarity of imitation to original, I react in the same way. (52)

Quatremere de Quincy in his Encyclopedic Methodique provided a comprehensive

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50 -
 discussion of imitation, linking the Classical tradition to the architectural debate. His view
of imitation influenced all subsequent architectural theory to our day (53). Quatremere
argued that imitation is the only way to create woilcs of art and that each art has its own

model in nature. In his Encyclopedic he writes:

The imitation which is really appropriate to architecture and the architect, which
associates the one with the other for the glory of the beaux-arts, reposes on

nature, but considered in the general laws of order and harmony, in the reasons
which explain all the works, in the principles to which nature has subordinated
its action... Additionally, architecture imitates nature, as far as, among the crea¬
te.
tions which depend its
on art,^follows and makes sensible the system which
nature has developed in all its 'oeuvres'. (54)

that sliould
Quatremere strongly advocates^ artists jb imitate the Classical Greeks, because the
secrets of nature have been revealed only to them. He stresses that only the Greeks
managed to avoid in their arts the fixation of symbols required for the representation of the
divine. Unlike other peoples, Quatremere argues, the Greeks, by multiplying the occasions
of making statues for persons who were not gods and had nothing to do with religion
(winners of stadium games ), emancipated imitation from its static copying character.

Imitation thus no longer subjected to mere representation of sacred forms sought

through the amelioration of form to approach reality and truth. Truth and reason acquired
major importance for imitation, which was no longer considered imitation of the routine
but true imitation, involving change and adaptability. False imitation, a separate citation in
Quatremere's Encyclopedic, was defined as any imitation lacking originality, creativity and
value.

3. 3. CONTEXTUALLY ORIENTATED IMITATION

Plato was the first to relate mimesis to ideal models and divine canons. But neverthe¬

less in his Timaeus he stresses:

The genre of imitators will imitate easier and more successfully those things in
which it has been brought up and is used to. (55)

Andronikos provides a commentary on these lines and probes the implications

further:
 This sort of imitation means the spiritual contextual atmosphere rendered by all
the works of art. Mimesis of this atmosphere is but a free interpretation since it
has not any form capable of being imitated . It is the expression of the spatial
and temporal spi it (genius loci, genius tempi), which each form of art achieves
using different materials and each artist in his own way, so that their common
(spiritual, intellectual) basis where they started from, is explicit and clear.
(56)

So the product of mimesis is judged not only against general criteria but against con¬
textual values as well. The outcome of imitation must be the proper one. Even if mimesis
is expected to relate to an abstract or even metaphysical model i.e. the abstract notion of
nature or the Platonic 'ideas', nevertheless there are different ways of achieving it and
hence the artist must seek for the suitable one. Suitability (57), a notion derived from the
Sophists and Socrates, characterizes an imitation which adapts to its purpose, nature, time,
and condition, when it is prepon, what is needed. Any analytic description of the prepon

should contradict its definition. What it is remains to be found by the particular artist to fit
the particular conditions.

Plato and Aristotle as well as the classical aftermath moulded on their thought, were
used in this study in no historical or philosophical sense per se, but rather as a means for
establishing a conceptual framework for imitation, before proceeding to a critical discussion
about imitation attitudes in architectonic creation.

The value of the discussed issues becomes evident if we consider that contemporary

uses of imitation in the architectural domain range from stylistic copying to creative inter¬
vention in historic settings. Furthermore, we think that as long as not all values are shared
by all peoples, any attempt to establish objective absolute models to be imitated by new

architecture seems rather inadequate to address the problem as a whole.

In that sense the failure of the "international style" becomes conceptually evident,
quite apart from the historical reality (58). We think instead that the only plausible way for
achieving meaning in the built environment is by making the best of the already existing
values. Taken that for granted, what is of great importance is the critical examination of
attempts sharing the same assumptions.

With the notion of mimesis as defined in the previous pages, it now becomes evident
that any consideration of historical settings in terms of traditional materials, geometric
forms or any other eclectic interpretation based on partial knowledge are simply whimsical
and arbitrary. Imitation of always
a context presupposes a comprehensive understanding of
-

52 -
it.

So, when we speak of architectonic creation in old settings, it is as legitimate to

accept the same architectonic response to different settings as it is to accept that two con¬
texts are characterized by the same spatio-temporal dimensions.

3. 4. CONTEXTUAL DIMENSIONS

In dealing with contextually orientated imitation as a means of relating new architec¬

ture to old settings, it is necessary to dwell for a while on the dimensions of a context and
try to define them. The first question we, in this thesis, have to answer is: What is it that
makes space so idiosyncratic in every place? and then: How can we acknowledge its par¬
ticular identity in relating new architecture to it?

When we speak of space in the present essay we mean first of all "actual" space, that
is, the geometrical articulation and configuration of our surrounding physical environment
Actual space can be objectively described and measured in geometrical (volumetric and
planimetric) terms and in that sense it is void of any symbolic dimension. All actual space
is equally important and no evaluation is possible. Actual space differs from place to place
but such differences in themselves have no meaning. What is important to assess in a place
is the reason for its being different from any other.

But space, as we use it, also encompasses "virtual" space. Virtual space, like actual
space, limits, frames, and differentiates the physical environment but it does not have
material existence. Virtual space superimposes its image upon actual space and renders it a

non-homogeneous field where not all parts of it have the same importance for the society
inhabiting it Virtual space is what gives significance and identity to space rendering it a

place. It relates to the associations, links, memories and generally the meanings that can be
ascribed to it by socio-cultural life.

Thus an open air field acquires the qualities of virtual space when it is experienced as
the place of a local festival or the place of an historical event. Equally, a hole on a public
square, as a virtual space, is the centre of a maypole dance. Any actual space can be vir¬
tual, when experienced by a particular person, but in this context we will deal and consider
as virtual spaces, spaces that have socio-cultural significance.

The terminology used here to describe space should not cause any confusion as to
reality of a particular place. Virtual space is most real since the man-made environment is
always interpreted according to some value systems, and actual space seems to be the most

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53 -
abstract since it is void of any socio-cultural characteristic. Yet it can also be said that
actual space is most objective, describable and measurable, while virtual space encom¬

passes the socio-cultural and existential space. Suzanne Langer also distinguishes between
actual and virtual space in the visual arts but she does so in a different sense from the one

used in this study. Following Hildenbrand, she draws the distinction between actual and
virtual space on perceptual grounds (59).

Some examples will make clear the sense in which the terms "actual" and "virtual"
space are used in this study and how virtual space can be acknowledged, as characteristic
of a given setting, by a new building in that setting. The place where Franklin's house
stood in Philadelphia, is characterized by its physical features as well as by its specific
significance for the local people. The American architect Robert Venturi in his attempt to
recreate the atmosphere of the place clearly imitates the virtual dimensions of the place by
rendering the contour of Franklin's house in a metallic framework (Fig. 3. 1). This metallic
frame gives material existence to what was there as a virtual quality.

In front of 'molino' Stucky in Venice what always existed as virtual space was not
some historic building of cultural significance to the inhabitants, as in the previous exam¬
ple, but the reflected image of the facade of the building. The architectonic group SITE
manifested the virtual space in front of the building in a material state by shaping the pave¬
ment in the form of the reflection of the facade (fig. 3. 2). That part of the Venetian lagoon
has always been the 'carrier' of a particular image and SITE'S intervention solidified a par-

ticular moment of Molino's mirror image. However trivial ^aspect of the place, SITE'S
intervention shows a gesture towards acknowledging a latent property of the place. In the

following parts of the thesis we will discuss what aspects - actual and virtual - of a setting
are appropriate to be imitated in designing new architecture in it and the need for a hierar¬
chy within the characteristics that we acknowledge as significant to relate to.

Both actual and virtual space in a given setting change, as life goes on. Places change
not only in physical configuration but in significance as well. Yet, at every time every set¬

ting presents a particular identity which relates to the appearance of its architecture as well
as its meaning for the people in this setting. We can conceptualize the constantly
developing actual and virtual space in a setting as a process of interaction between space
and time. In Chapter Four we will examine in what sense the spatio-temporal dimensions
of a setting can be acknowledged in relating new architecture to that setting. It will suffice
for now to pinpoint the fact that a setting is a life process and not its visual appearence and
its symbolic significance at a particular time. So, imitation of a setting implies imitation of
the way that a particular setting came to be.

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54 -
 This relativistic notion of mimesis, i.e. contextualy orientated, is against any absolu¬
tism and universalism in architecture and constitutes the main assumption in this thesis.
New architecture in a old setting relates not only to local characteristics butmore general cmes
as well,only it does so through the standpoint of a contextual basis. Yet, some "absolute"
model of beauty is also implied in assessing the relevance of new architecture to a given
setting. Relativism and absolutism, prepon and beautiful, constituted for Plato's theory of
art a dialectic play-pair. Interpreted this way Plato's theory of art becomes useful for the
purposes of this thesis and justifies the extended discussion of mimesis.

As we will argue in Chapter Five, what is considered as a criterion for judging how
successfully a new building relates to its context, is the ability of new architecture to
stimulate and sustain several, interrelated and contextually relevant, interpretations for
different interpreters (60). So, objective value for an architectural creation is possible to the
extent that a comprehensive interpr.tative process is also possible. However fictional a
wholistic relation between new and old architecture might be, it nevertheless implies that
increased possibilities of acquiring diverse interpretations renders the architectonic interven¬
tion meaningful and appropriate with equally increased possibilities (61).

Expressing the above in Socratic terms:

"A house can justly be regarded as most pleasant and most beautiful if at all
times its owner can find in it the most congenial shelter...". (62)

The transition from the subjective to the intersubjective will be made through the pos¬
sibilities of a contextually orientated architectural creation to remain meaningful in several
circumstances for several interpreters. Interpretation of new architecture vis a vis its context
is adopted in this thesis as a useful springboard for new architecture to be meaningful.
Contextual anchorage of all interpretations alsc guarantees the interrelation between several
interpretations so that to avoid a meaningless multiplicity of intepretations, like those v in a
Rorschach test.

3. 5. IMITATING THE CONTEXT

3. 5. 1. THE CONTEXT AS A SPATIAL STRUCTURE

The context of a particular setting constitutes a complex spatio-temporal web. When

its imitation is intended it must be decided (explicitly or not) what this context consists of,
what are its particular values; and furthermore a certain hierarchy between them must be

-
55 -

V
established. As Nelson Goodman puts it describing the copying of an object;

... the object before me is a man , a swarm of atoms, a complex of cells, a

fiddler, a friend, a fool and much more. If none of these constitute the object as
it is what else might? If all are ways the object is, then none is the way the
object is. I can not copy all these at once; ... (63)

Similarly the architectonic context in old settings is its material dimension i.e. the
material fabric of the setting, its formal dimension i.e. the geometric articulation and
configuration, its symbolic dimension i.e. the embodiment of several social values and
meanings and much more (64).

In the Western cultures the use of durable materials for monuments as well as our

contemporary attitude towards conserving them signify the importance of the material
dimension of things for these cultures. On the other hand, what is of major importance to
Chinese culture, is the abstract geometric form of things, and not the material existence
which is temporary and subject to decay. For the Chinese only form resists, endures and
finally outlasts time.

Similarly, in Japan " at stated intervals Shinto temples are entirely rebuilt and their
furnishing and decoration renewed. The great shrines of Ise in particular, the very center of
the religion, are built every 20 years " (65).

To imitate all at once is next to impossible since at least the temporal dimension can
not be the same. Similarly, to imitate any partial aspect is a selective attitude which has to
be somehow justified to avoid being arbitrary and whimsical, an architectural caprice.

If neither all the dimensions of a particular context nor any definite particular one can
be the standard rule for imitation, then a certain selective attitude and a hierarchy has to be
established to guide the imitation process. This attitude is necessary but not sufficient to
produce creative, because appropriate, new architecture in old settings. In this thesis, we
can go so far as to discuss some guidelines along which creative new architecture can be
enhanced and superficial imitation discouraged. Otherwise new architecture can only be a
good copy of what exists already.

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56 -
3. 5. 2. THE CONTEXT AS A LIFE PROCESS

We have already introduced the conceptualization of space as actual and virtual.

Materials, forms, and urban disposition are some of the dimensions of actual space, while
the cultural significance is a property of virtual space. Even if a new architecture manages
to address all the above dimensions of the setting it is grafted into, it would nevertheless
relate superficially to it. If a comprehensive interpretation is intended, it is misleading to
consider a specific context only as it appears at the particular time we happen to interpret
it.

What is needed is a full participation not in a static image synchronically seen but
participation in its life process. A context interpreted as a diachronic process, will reveal the
process of its transformation through time, the rhythm of its change and the life force
which results every time in a different spatial structure.

After WW2, the historic centers of Warsaw and Prague were rebuilt as facsimiles of
the destroyed originals. Contemporary practice in historic centers at least in Europe and the
United States confirms that pastiche ( facsimile copying ), is a well established policy.
These attempts of superficially relating new architecture to old settings create a rather
grotesque atmosphere in the sense that buildings of the past share with contemporary ones
the same appearance. People cannot recognise if a building is authentic or not, while his¬
toric settings are treated in a scenographic sense.

Using the existing old settings as blueprints for contemporary architectonic expression
cannot but be problematic as far as the problem of new architecture is concerned. In an age
of museums, the city is becoming a museum itself. New architecture has nothing to offer
or suggest and is exhausted in copying the past. If historic settings are meaningful it is
because they represent a whole set of social and cultural values. They are manifestations of
the life process of past eras. Is it legitimate for contemporary architecture to express
another society, in another time in the same way, since we no longer share the same
values?

In some cases the facade of old buildings is kept intact, or copied exactly and a new
building is being built behind. Deceptions like the above, even if when they offer a satis¬
factory appearance, fail to establish lasting relationships with their context. When false imi¬
tation is realised and the "trompe d'oeil" is over, what we are left with is a meaningless
environment. False imitation such as "contemporary" medieval villages in Yugoslavia,
neo-vernacular settlements in the Greek islands, neo-Georgian houses in Bath and Edin¬
burgh, are but instances of the predicament of contemporary architecture.

-
57 -
 Building regulations in historic settings in an attempt to protect vernacular and his¬
toric settings from architectural indifference and land exploitation, deal with architectural
heritage in terms of proportions, colours and materials used. The adoption of certain forms,
metrically described is obligatory, inhibiting this way architectural creativity for the sake of
a well defined tactics of copying (66).

Criticism like this is not at all to discourage preservation in historic settings. What is
argued here is that as far as contemporary architectural creativity is concerned, copying (
false imitation ) does not offer a plausible creative response to the problem in general. And
it seems that there is a problem since the values of the past are not the only values of
today.

We do not even deny that copying is the only solution in particular cases e.g. the
reconstruction of the Polish historic centers and mainly that of Warsaw, was a symbolic
action towards uniting people and their history under exceptional circumstances. We do
not deny either the fascination of copying in a Disneyland like mode. But certainly as
far as the aim of this study remains to examine the problem in general, pastiche is not imi¬
tation or at least it is not imitation in the sense we are using the term in this study.

Imitation of a historic setting in a contemporary intervention does not mean copying

its material or formal manifestation but rather imitating the past ways of responding to con¬

textual needs. In that sense, imitation of the creativity or the ingenuity of the architecture
of the past in a particular setting, seems to come closer to proper imitation.

Similarly, in trying to express the quality of a historic setting as a whole by adopting

only a particular aspect of it as representative, cannot but result in architectural caprice.
Students of the Architectural Association in their projects for the Cowgate area of medieval
Edinburgh, imitated the drum of the castle or cranes hanging around (67) (Fig. 3. 3). Claes
Oldenburg impressed by the continuous traffic circles in old Stockholm thought of them as
the most characteristic symbol to depict in a gigantic monumental spire (68) (Fig. 3. 4).

Superficial selectivism like these cannot be considered as successful insertions of new

architecture in old settings, because they do not relate to the essence of a setting; instead
they just pick up a typicality or an abstract whimsical generality expressing a haphazard
aspect of an old setting and a haphazard choice of the designer. Overstressing some charac¬
teristics of an old setting at the expense of others can only be justified if it results from an
interpretation of the setting as a whole and an established hierarchy among what is to be
imitated. Otherwise, imitation can only express lack of proper understanding.

Every context is the accumulation of several periods of its life, it is sort of stratified

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58 -
historically and any synchronic analysis is unable to catch them. The genius loci of a par¬

ticular setting has a diachronic existence every time manifested in different materials and
forms.

Supposing we want to insert a new building in the historic setting of the island of
Hydra. Its context is the coexistence of 4 distinctive eras expressed architecturally in
equally distinctive forms. Which one should we imitate to match our new building? The
problem becomes even more difficult if we consider that the modesty of the 16th century
settlements contrasts to the sea captain villas of the 18th century (69). In such cases copy¬

ing, as a strategy for intervention in historic settings, is caught in a paradox, while the
imitation-contrast dialectics manifests its full value in relating new and old in a way which
goes beyond architectural styles.

The Italian architectonic group SUPERSTUDIO exaggerating the problem of historic

eclecticism in contemporary architectonic intervention in old settings proposed a scheme
for Florence attempting to transform the city to a lake as it used to be in Pleistocene period
with only Brunelleschi's dome and Giotto's campanile soaring above the water level (Fig.
3. 5). Again such a selective attitude cannot do justice to the Florentine context as a whole

The concept of analogy is of particular importance here to enable us to interprete the

particular setting as a context for architectonic intervention, diachronically, and to decide
the scale and the impact of our intervention.

Quatremere gave a hint towards this dimension of the context, when he said that we

must imitate nature not in what she makes but as she makes things, in other words we

should rather imitate the worker and not the work.

The particular historical importance of a context and its symbolic dimensions in gen¬
eral is thus seen not as additional properties of space but as an equivalent with space^pro-
duct of a life process. Context interpreted in that sense is understood comprehensively and
provides the best possible contextual background for an intervention to come.

Any architectonic creation which interprets, evaluates and addresses an old setting,
relates to life process in it rediscovering the nature of this particular setting. This very
nature is what we have been exploring as the Platonic "idea" or the Aristotelean katholou
(70), or even what Norberg-Schulz calls genius loci.

All of these acknowledge and attribute a sort of spirituality to human settlements and
it is in that sense that it is possible for the same contextual nature to be manifested in
several geometrical forms and/or through the use of materials different from the original.

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59 -
Otherwise we can only talk about different settings as different times. Imitation of this sort
is a true one to its time acquiring the quality of an expressive, metaphoric or analogic imi-
other
tation'than mere copying and pastiche. Despite the fact that different responses are possi¬
ble to the same context, they all differ from any selective attitude because they address the
context as a whole and establish a communicative basis with it.

3. 6. CONTRAST AS A NOTION DIALECTICAL TO IMITATION

Since imitation cannot be the same in all dimensions as its model, it necessarily
implies and calls for differentiation as well. Either as a consequence or as an intention,
differentiation enters the imitation process and defines the identity of an architectonic crea¬
tion in relation to its model of which it constitutes an imitation of and to which it relates.

It has become evident by now that pure imitation is impossible in reality. In order to
imitate an aspect of the past it is often necessary to do so by contrasting to some other

aspects of it. For instance, if we want to imitate the construction techniques of the "black
and white" Elizabethian houses in a new building, we have to abandon the old morphology
if we are to use new materials. Another instance of contrast occurs when false responses

to contextual characteristics have resulted in inappropriate buildings. In this case, although

it is necessary to relate to them as parts of the context, this relation can best be expressed
in terms of contrast if a critical appraisal of the contextual qualities is intended. In any

case, past forms, past contextual meanings and associations for a given setting and past

ways of responding to these aspects of a setting are often historically determined. This fact
alone necessitates the imitation of these aspects in an analogical sense, i.e. employing con¬

trast as well as imitation in order to imitate more effectively.

The notions of originality, novelty, invention etc., acquire their importance in relation
to the notion of contrast and this in turn by being an opposite notion of imitation associates
with them.

Contrast is the manifestation of an opposition. New buildings intended to relate to

historic settings by contrasting to them, often result in meaningless novelties, which are
exhausted in a mere juxtaposition to their surroundings instead of relating to them in a
wholistic way by engaging with them and critically assessing them. Architectonic con¬
trasts which exhaust their values in visual shocks cannot be considered as plausible solu¬
tions to the problem. Glass clad buildings wishing to contrast or even reflect their his¬
torical context neutrally are nothing but an alibi for uncreative architecture. As far as our
problem is concerned, glass architecture alone has nothing to offer beyond a visual

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60 -
difference. Glass architecture as a strategy for contrasting to historical surroundings has
always a borrowed existence. It is the absence of architecture. As with pastiche, the sceno-

graphic attitude appears not as copying for homogeneity this time, but as contrast for
variety.

"High-Tech" architectonic interventions in old settings are limited to the implementa¬

tion of modem technology alone and contrast in terms of materials and the resulting forms
cannot establish a dialogue with the existing settings.

This is not to suggest that there is something uncreative about glass architecture or

"high-tech" just because they employ new materials and revolutionary forms. In fact the
opposite is rather true, but the use of new materials and "high-tech" forms alone do not
guarantee an appropriate, relevant and successful contrast to an historic setting. In other
for"
words, they cannot substitute! the need for creativity. New technological materials assem¬
bled in high tech constructions or glass architecture express internationalism and there is no

objection to that. The objection raised here concerns the local characteristics of a particular
setting which also claim their acknowledgement

Philip Webb in his red house created a prominent modem building using local tradi¬
tional materials and what is admirable in Mackintosh's Glasgow school of art is not the
use of iron and glass but their creative manipulation in order to express the Scottish con¬
text in a modem way (Figs 3. 6-7).

Contrast in the present study does not mean any differentiation to a context but a kin¬
dred one. Contrast as a form of relation involves imitation in order to be considered akin to

what it contrasts to. Imitation and contrast in that sense arise and constitute dialectical

features each one presupposing the other (71).

To imitate is not just to copy something but create in analogy, which necessitates
contrast. Even if we imitate nature we have to consider that:

Nature has a liking for opposites; perhaps it is from them that she created har¬
mony and not from similar things. (72)

Contrast is not just any difference. It is the opposite of something and in that sense
relates to it. Anything different does not necessarily relate to what is different to. Contrast
by being opposite to something rejects it in a wholistic sense presenting a critical disposi¬
tion to things and as such acquires significance and contextual value. It speaks, if we may
say so, the same language as the context and holds a critical position towards it from the
inside.

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61 -
 To create, through new architecture, contrast to an existing setting, pressurises a full
understanding of it so as to enable us in creating its opposite, to imitate the complemen¬

tary way in intervening in a context. Contrast is the only way of introducing novelty and

change through complete and comprehensive understanding of a particular setting and its
identity (Figs 3. 8-9).

It is in this sense that Bruno Zevi argues about the proper conceptualization of the
problem. He argues that every architectonic intervention in existing historic contexts should
be conceived as a "dissonant insertion", alluding to the musical analogy (73).

Zevi's plea for "dissonance" in historic contexts should be interpreted, following

Suoenberg, not as just an irrelevant tonality in a harmonic series but rather as a disagree¬
ment in a wholistic sense. The context is opposed as a whole and the dissonance is con¬
sidered such in relation to this whole. Dissonance
as
pressure ses understanding and critical
disposition.

Architectonic intervention and context are not to be considered as two separate things
but rather as the opposite instances of the same thing. Heracleitus expressed that in one of
his fragments:

(People) do not understand how that which differs with itself is in agreement;
harmony consists of opposing tensions like that of the bow and the lyre. (74)

In contemporary architectonic creation it seems that we have come to understand the

need for contrast (75). What we lack is a comprehensive understanding of the Heracleitean
"itself'. Difference and contrast in itself is his plea. In more concrete terms, any architec¬
tonic contrast to an existing setting should first of all understand the context so that to be
considered as an instance of the context itself before presenting its contrast to the existing
dimension. This sort of contrast is an aspect of the context, otherwise it does not relate in a
dialectical sense to it, or at least it relates as much as anything else.

Contrast and imitation measure our indebteness to tradition and our ability to
transform it in order to survive. Their dialectics elucidates the interpretation, evaluation and
finally incorporation of the past. It has to do with the task of changing the context in a
contextual way.

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62 -
3. 7. FROM CONTEXT TO INTERVENTION:

THE DIALECTICS BETWEEN IMITATION AND CONTRAST

AS A CREATIVE PROCESS

It seems that we have come to the point where we can consider imitation and contrast
in the following triadic schema: context/imitation-contrast dialectics/object, and particularly:
old setting/imitation-contrast dialectics/new architecture.

So, the imitation-contrast dialectics now becomes the centra of the problem of

relating new architectonic interventions to old settings. The problem nevertheless remains
of how a harmonic balance between imitation and contrast could be achieved as far as the

built environment is concerned. With this problem we will deal in Chapter Five and
Chapter Seven.

New architecture, by establishing meaningful associations with the setting where:*is

being grafted into not only becomes meaningful itself, but justifies, reinforces and reveals
the existence of its context as well. In that sense old and new architecture, conceived in
this thesis as context and object, establish a dialectical relationship capable of producing
and acquiring several interrelated and contextually significant values.

This interplay between the rival and complementary opposites is the real creative gen¬
erator of meaning. Hippolyte Rigault comparing the ancient and the modern in literature
writes:

Two spirits partake in the world, the ancient spirit and the modem spirit, both
legitimate, because this corresponds to two real necessities of humanity; tradi¬
tion and progress. (76)

Joel Weinsheimer discussing the same problem from a phenomenological standpoint,

adopts a triadic conceptual schema through which he examines original and imitation as

instances of the same thing connected through the imitation process. The original finds its
justification in being imitated and imitation finds its raison d'^etre in revealing the original.

Although Rigault and Weinsheimer discuss the problem in the domain of literary cri¬
ticism where the relation between original work of literature and its imitation can be traced
more adequately, what is of relevance to this study is the creativity of the dialectical inter¬
play between original and imitation, original as the context-the particular setting-and imita¬
tion as a new architectural creation intervening in that setting.

For Weinsheimer, imitation and contrast constitute a never ending dialectical process

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63 -
of creation where "imitations father originals and originals father imitations" (77). Original¬
ity, even if it is considered as imitating nothing, denotes that it "wishes" to be imitated by
all.

Although Weinsheimer adopts a dialectic conceptualization he nevertheless cannot

finally avoid the dominance of imitation over and against originality. Originality, or

novelty, is rather considered as a form of imitation, or as a chancy by-product in our

attempt to imitate. Novelty is not intended. In that sense it cannot be considered as ade¬

quate for the purposes of this thesis, where contrast is considered as intentional and
creative inferring novelty in the context it addresses. What remains important though in
Weinsheimer's study is that imitation is conceived in its most creative sense, that is encom¬
passing the criticism of its original.

In our discussion what constitutes the key concept of creation in contextually orien¬
tated architecture is the imitation-contrast dialectics, which has the same implications as
imitation in Weinsheimer's theory, used in a creative sense, linking all creation in general,
encompassing the criticism of its original. Imitation and contrast constitute an equipotent
pair of dialectic opposites which is creative and not tautological (78).

In that sense imitation through contrast and contrast through imitation seems the only
proper way of relating. Imitation stands for the adoption of acknowledged values, while
contrast stands for the renovating agent of the context which introduces new values and
meanings according to the changes of the socio-cultural context.

To imitate or contrast in that sense is to reveal the essence of an existing architec¬

tonic context by manifesting it in a contemporary way in order to be understood. Imitation
and contrast coexist in a symbiotic way both striving to free the local spirit, the genius
loci.

Italian architects seem to have been the first to conceive theoretically the problem as

stated so far in the present study. In the 50's the basic principle of the modem movement
which was neglect of the past, was critically opposed and finally abandoned in favour of
an approach towards harmonic coexistense between the old and the new in historic settings.
There had been a forerunner of this attitude when in the early decades of the 20th century
the Italian archaeological school employed new materials in reconstruction to differentiate
the authentic from the reconstructed parts.

Reconstructions in Pompei, in the forum Traianum in Rome or even the Greek tem¬
ples in Lindos, Rhodes, are two examples illustrating this attitude. Echoing Camillo Boito's
plea for authenticity the contrast employed in imitating structures and monuments of the

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past had been an everyday practice (Fig. 3. 10).

Early in the 50's the architects Belgiojoso, Peressutti and Rogers created an admir¬
able architectonic intervention in the historic urban tissue of Milan. Tore Velasca is a

modern building but nevertheless it is a pure Italian offspring addressing the typical Italian
townscape and especially that of Milan from medieval towers to contemporary office
blocks. The power of the bureucratic image of Tore Velasca takes the place of the equally
powerful image of the mediaeval Dukes' towers (Fig. 3. 11).

Museum building has also been the starting point for harmonic contrast in architec¬
ture. Carlo Scaipa in Venice and Franco Albini at Genes present the first creative attitudes
of successful architectonic integration between old and new (79).

At Urbino, Giancarlo De Carlo and at Verona,Carlo Scarpa epitomise all creative atti¬
tudes. The imitation - contrast dialectics achieves there its most powerful expression (Figs
3. 12-13). In Calver Strasse, in Stuttgart, the architects Kammerer and Belz managed to
insert a new architectonic creation able to regenerate powerful images of the street by
using steel frame and metallic cladding (Fig. 3. 14).

Dominikus Bohm's administration offices at Benberg, near Cologne, constitute a

powerful manipulation of volumes recreating the whole setting, while addressing the con¬
text at multiple levels. It imitates the articulation of the urban volumes while it never fails
in retaining a coherence as one building. The horizontality and the symmetry of the nearby
Neoclassical buildings is imitated through a similar approach in the horizontal series of the
openings while it is balanced with the soaring of a multi-sided spire associating with the
Medieval belfries (Fig. 3. 15).

Without loosing its autonomy as a whole it spreads diachronically into the urban tissue
acquiring roots from the rock formation of the Germanic castles to the ordinary mediaeval
house facades. The contours of the several sides and the height levels in combination with the
flatness of the concrete slabs appear as the best contemporary successor to the framed half
timbered facades of the medieval houses. Mortar and timber give their way easily to con¬

crete, which in turn without betraying and contradicting with its potentialities as a new

material, manages to acquire a local use. Its skyline undulating in the air compensates for
an ever increasing urbanisation rhythm and renders the architectonic intervention as a
whole a powerful generator of meanings able to remodel and re-express the context in a
contemporary way (80).

In the following we will try to illustrate the dialectics between imitation and contrast
in what we consider to be a creative intervention in an old setting. In Chapter Six we well

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discuss the way the architect comprehensively and diachronically interprets a given setting
in order to design a new building in it. We will also examine the possible levels of intepre-
tation and the need for a hierarchy between them.

The Dutch architect Aldo Van Eyck in Hubertus house epitomises a whole life of
dialectical architectonic theorizing and practicing. In Otterloo congress in 1959 he had
already stressed the need for temporal perspectives in contemporary building. Since then
his plea has been for the energetic coexistense of past, present and future in architectonic
creation, and Hubertus house constitutes an attempt for the fusion of these times together.

An old Neo-Renaissance synagogue was demolished to give its place to a new archi¬
tectonic creation in Plantage Middenlaan in Amsterdam.

Hubertus association for one parent families had already been using two of the exist¬

ing buildings and owned the synagogue. Taken the need for a new building for granted it
would be quite normal, as Herzberger writes, to have headed towards either a self-
contained more or less autonomus building or else one subordinated to the existing ones.
Van Eyck managed to create both. A new bright-coloured architectonic creation was built
which gradually extends its presence into the other two existing ones. The streetscape is
renewed in a familiar way. The new building is placed between a rather indifferent to its
neighbours glass building and the two Neo-Baroque ones which generally speaking can be
considered as typical of the street and the adjacent area.

Although the glass building does not relate to the character of the specific context but
only differentiates itself to them in a haphazard and not a critical mode, it nevertheless is
equally with the others considered as a legitimate presence. It is as if the passage of time
has rendered it a contextual image. Van Eyck manages to relate it as far as new materials
are concerned but what is of greater importance manages to relate to the old images of the
context as well though the creative manipulation of familiar perceptual and symbolic
dimensions of the context.

The use of bright coloured steel framework and concrete columns contrasts to the
grey patina of age of the existing buildings as well as with the the glass cladded one. It is
not the contrast of just one colour to another, but the contrast of all the colours to any
specific one. The rainbow is contrasted to the clouded mood of the neighbourhood. The
new material takes easily the place of timber opening frames and disseminates the change
which has occurred inside. The renovation process ranges from imitating the old forms in
new materials and colours to totally creative innovation in shapes and structures.

The new building emerges through a gradual transformation from the inside of the

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existing buildings, the envelope of which is kept intact, to the main new building. The new

building appears as if it sprang off the existing urban fabric giving to it a new life. In its
light the old fabric receives a new interpretation and a new life, while the architectural
intervention acquires anchorage in the specific context.

Hubertus house is not just a different image in its context, but embodies an under¬
standing and a critical disposition towards it. Participating in the street where it belongs, it
closes the gap and acquires its position as one of the series keeping the linear character of
the existing street, but nevertheless it regenerates another one which starts from the
entrance and extends to the rear vertically to the street (Fig. 3. 16). A new private street is
contrasted to the existing public one. The new building is transparent and open towards the
street as its expressional presence confirms, but nevertheless it does not show any intention
for public intrusion and creates a shelter for the people inside.

The mirror frames facing the street, reinforce its open-closed character and remind us

of their symbolic use in India, to keep the spirits out (Fig. 3. 17). The mirrors constitute
the threshold and the limit between the public and the private realm and contrast the per¬
manent colours of the building, framed inside the mirrors to the temporary changing of the
street life.

Van Eyck's plea for a house as a small city can be seen clearly in Hubertus house.
Paths, playgrounds, and ladders create a cityscape character which could be considered as a

toy version of Amsterdam (figs 3. 18-20). Neighbourhoods one above the other, canals like
corridors of children circulation and ladders foot bridge-like constitute a coherent whole.

The central spiral staircase acquires in that sense a symbolic dimension uniting the
old to the new, the street to the side street, the inside of the main entrance to the outside.

Generally speaking the spiral unites context and new intervention as two sets of opposites
in time. Contextual setting and the new architectonic intervention succeed one another as

the one blends with the other though the staircase glass, in the interpretation process as one
reinforces the other and even at the symbolic level as the spiral unites the opposites in
time (Figs 3. 21-22).

The narrow facade, the creation or the inside street, the omnipresent ladders, and the
formal configuration of the whole building constitute but playful manipulations of spatial
and temporal values already existing, the creative transformation of which evokes and re¬
evaluates them. As Francis Strauven argues in a sound interpretation:

Far from conforming to its neighbours, or accommodating itself to a supposed

typological order, it is grafted on to its context in an equal but contrasting

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 relationship. It belongs not because of an outward similarity but because of a

commitment This commitment is expressed by interchanging transformed signs.

(81)

This interchange of signs is held in a variety of levels and penetrates the con¬

ception of the building from detail design in the interion spaces to the performance of the
building as a whole in the given context. Hubertus house by not being conceived in a

vacuum absorbs and radiates contextual values (Fig. 3. 23). It is selective in the gifts
it accepts from its context, while it does not fail to interpret it in contrary terms, introduc¬
ing to it novelty and change.

3. 8. CONCLUSIONS

Imitation and contrast are inextricably interrelated in their operation to link new and
old architecture at several levels of reference. Pure imitation or pure contrast are impossi¬
ble. What really matters is not which one prevails over the other but their balanced interac¬
tion in a continuous dialogue. This is the reason we have been discussing imitation far
more than we have contrast.

As they are used in this thesis, a proper imitation is equally appropriate and creative,
as far as new architecture in historic settings is concerned, with proper contrast. Both
notions of imitation and contrast can be used as tools in our interpretation of new architec¬
ture in old settings, while their creative use is a matter of interpretation.

In the following chapters we will examine how imitation and contrast, assessed
through some dialectical polarities we will introduce in Chapter Four, can interrelate new
and old architecture in a comprehensive sense.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

TOWARDS A DIALECTIC CONCEPTUALIZATION

OF TIME IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT

4. 1. RELATING OLD AND NEW IN TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE:

TEMPORAL DEPTH AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION

It was argued in Chapter Three that the dialectics between imitation and contrast is a
useful framework for exploring the relation of contemporary architecture to historic set¬
tings. Although imitation and contrast are antithetical notions, they both express modes of
relating new to old architecture. This common property enables their consideration as

equally important dimensions of an entity characterized by their dialectic interaction.

In order to assess relations between old and new architecture in various contexts in

terms of imitation and contrast, it is important to notice that they are only polarizations out
of a wide spectrum of relativities. Absolute imitation and absolute contrast are both
fictional -
conceptual abstractions - while the modes in between characterize the empirical
reality of everyday architectural development.

Imitation and contrast, by relating features or aspects of new architecture to a given

setting where new architecture is grafted into, link together things separated in time. Yet,
despite the link across time that these modes of relation make between new and old, the
distance in time remains present, embedded in this relation. In fact it is the act of relating a

given setting and a newly introduced piece of architecture, which manifests their separation
and their contiguousness at the same time.

For instance, a contemporary infill to the Mediaeval part of Edinburgh, intended to

relate to Edinburgh castle, can only do so by imitation of certain aspects of it and in con¬
trast to some others. The materials employed, the morphological articulation, the lay-out or
even the scale could be some of the aspects of the castle to be addressed either by being
imitated or by being contrasted, or else the new building will show no intention to relate to
its context. Whatever these aspects might be, they would link contemporary times with the

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times that Edinburgh castle represents albeit not concealing their actual distance from them.
A temporal field is raised between new architecture and the castle and it is within this field
their relations are assessed and their meanings ascribed. The emergence of such a temporal
field accompanies every transformation, addition or modification in the man-made environ¬
ment since anything new comes necessarily into visual and spatial relation with its adjacent
context, whether new architecture intends to relate to it or not.

Reproduction of historical styles, pastiche or replication cannot be an adequate policy

for contemporary architectonic intervention because they miss the temporal distance
between any historical era and today. When relating past and current architecture, the tem¬
poral distance between them is also important not because time has passed per se, but
because it has resulted in different socio-cultural characteristics such as manners, customs,

beliefs, taste and so forth, which can no longer be expressed by copying the past.
Approaches which acknowledge only the formal typology of the past disconnect forms
from their meaning. The reproduction of Georgian houses in Edinburgh overemphasizes a

relation of the present times to the Georgian period - whatever a neo-Georgian building is
supposed to express today- at the expense of contemporary architectural expression. How¬
ever faithful the reproduction of the external facades could be, the intention of imitating a

past era is negated by modem needs as they are reflected, for instance, in modem appli¬
ances and the provision of parking places.

Conversely, new architecture attempting to relate to a historic setting by uncritical

differentiation, fails to acknowledge the continuity between past and present in this setting,
the remaining bonds connecting a society with its past. However each culture changes, it
does so in reference to some sort of permanent or continuous characteristics which define
its identity. Some architects and critics argue that glass buildings relate to their surround¬
ings in terms of their contrast to them.

No doubt, glass buildings are everywhere and in most cases there is no intention of
their designers to relate to their surroundings. But it is more relevant for the purposes of
this thesis to examine the cases in which neutral glass buildings are postulated to be
responsive to their environment by virtue of the characteristics of glass to reflect its sur¬
roundings.

The sheer juxtaposition of new materials and abstract geometric forms to the tradi¬
tional texture and shape of historic settings, in addition to the reflection on their surface of
their adjacent buildings, are often considered enough to define successful intervention in
historic settings. For instance, the administration building of a bank in the city of Stuttgart
(Fig. 4. 1), is decribed by its architects as a desirable contrast with the historic buildings in

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its vicinity. Differentiation for its own sake, that is, as an end in itself, is not enough to
anchor a relation; and the reflections of the contextual images do not bring old and new
closer. The temporal gap between them remains unbridged and old and new architecture
stand in isolation from each other. Certainly glass buildings can be successful interventions
but not because of their reflecting historic surroundings and of juxtaposing new materials
to old ones.

It is evident that a temporal perspective upon the problem of relating new to old
architecture defines the limitations of each of the previous cases. Copying, i.e. uncritical
imitation, overemphasizes the similarities between new and old at the expense of their

differences, while juxtaposing, i.e. uncritical contrast, overemphasizes the differences. A

relation between old and new architecture can only be considered in a wholistic sense if it
is assessed in a temporal perspective where similarities and differences between the present
and the past find their place and balance.

Relating new architecture to old in terms of visual appearance, formal organization,

volumetric configuration or planimetric disposition have been the main themes at least in
the European historic centres. Detailed Building Regulations define precisely the size of
windows, the proportions of the facades, the number of openings, the form of the roof, the

building materials, the texture and the colour of buildings, to mention only few of the
requirements that any new construction in historic settings has to comply with. Typologies
of historic buildings, based on the geometry of their form or even their materials, are used
as blueprints for contemporary architecture.

Some interesting questions are raised here. Why should contemporary buildings relate
to a specific typology which represents only a particular period of the past? How are we to

define the importance of one style to be imitated at the expense of all the others which
differ from it yet are part of a particular setting as well? Or, to put it more generally, what
are the relations between the present and the various past historical periods in a specific
setting? Spatial approaches to the problem of architectural renewal certainly do not answer
such questions and for this reason the relation of new to old architecture they refer to is
imperfect, arbitrary, sterile and sometimes politically suspect when one sided views of his¬
tory are advocated.

In some particular cases, however, reproduction of the past or replication of a specific

building or total negation of a specific period of the past can be justified. These cases
however can only be accepted as exceptions that prove the rule. In Poland, for example,
after the Second World War, the historic center of Warsaw which had been dynamited dur¬
ing the war to break the national spirit, was reconstructed according to existing detailed

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drawings of the destroyed buildings. The same materials were employed and detail for
detail, building for building an exact replication was achieved. The final product is, of
course, a fake but we can nevertheless consider it exceptionally as legitimate. Poland had
to redeem its national identity. Replication of the historic center in Warsaw was a means

towards this end, a symbolic act of great national importance. Such a major catastrophe of
a considerable area of the historic center of the nation's capital could only be compensated
by a reconstruction almost as radical the catastrophe itself.

4. 2. CONTEXTUAL FACETS AND THEIR TEMPORAL DIMENSIONS

Arguing for the consideration of the temporal dimensions of historic settings vis-a-vis
new architecture in them, raises an important issue. What exactly is the context of a

specific historic setting which should be treated as sort of reference, a model for new archi¬
tecture to relate to? A particular place in a given setting which is to be built or modified is
an entity resisting complete analysis and measurement; it encompasses its geographic posi¬
tion, its topography, its history as the history of its elements and, to put it briefly, everyday
life during all the stages in its history. Any analytical approach to measure its history can¬
not do justice to its existence as a whole. Every place defies fragmentation and statistical
dissectioa The best possible systematic approach to its identity is doomed to be as near to
the reality of the place as ornithology is to a particular bird. Nonetheless some aspects can
be discussed even if to show the complexity of the problem.

Every place is part of several comprehensive entities at several scales of reference,

while being an entity itself. It is part of a local socio-cultural situation by following its
development, while participating m several others at several levels. For instance, a particu¬
lar place in the Greek island of Hydra while having a unique identity itself, it is also part
of the street and the village it belongs to. At greater scales of reference it is part of Hydra
island, Greece and the Mediterranean to mention some of the most distinctive.

One building is by no means the minimum scale of reference and a street certainly
not the maximum. The contextual facets of a setting, against which new architecture will
be interpreted and evaluated, is a varying framework, which cannot be analytically
specified. The building materials, the configuration of the urban tissue, the texture of the
urban fabric, the geometry of its lay-out along with the relations, associations and mean¬
ings that every part of the setting pertains to, are only some of the constituent elements,
that new architecture can relate to.

The context for a new building, whatever the scale of reference in relation to the new

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building, is more than its parts. A built wall is more than the number of bricks and the
mortar used for its construction. In order for a wall to be built, skills, a will to build and a

purpose for doing so are also needed. The man-made environment equally so, or perhaps
more so, is a complex web in various networks having to do with the particularities in
space and time for every culture.

Another basic issue concerning the contextual facets, or levels of reference, was dis¬
cussed in Chapter Three, where the notions of actual and virtual space were introduced.
Actual space relates to the form of a setting - to whatever scale we consider it - and virtual
space to its content. Context, in short, is actual and virtual space, considered at a diversity
of levels, in constant development.

Attempting to relate a new building to a historic setting is not simply relating to one

clearly defined thing in space and in time. What should a new building in contemporary
Athens relate to? The Classical context, the Byzantine context or the Neoclassical one, to

mention only a few distinctive "styles" at the expense of architecture which cannot be
classified in styles? The question pertains not only to the formal aspects of these "styles"
but also to their temporal dimensions. For example, what does it mean to reappropriate the
Neoclassical "style" today? Why adopt it? What does it express and what has it come to

signify? For instance, the meaning of Neoclassicism cannot any more refer to the humanis¬
tic revival of the Classical world during the 19th century, since it has been abused to
express political power and authoritarian institutions in such diverse societies as the United
States of America, the Nazi regime in Germany and the Socialist Soviet Union.

Histories of "styles" cannot adequately account for the life of a setting. Its history
resembles more a dynamic field, where the histories of its elements coincide, criss-cross,
interweave or oppose each other. In this way, every setting as a unique entity develops in a

particular way and presents particular to it characteristics. Its history relates more to the
way it evolves rather than to a particular instant in its life.

The notion of history itself in a definite sense has been critically questioned by the
French historiographers. The pioneers of the Annales school, Lucien Febvre and Mark
Bloch, moved away from the conception of history as a narrative of political deeds towards
a rather philosophical history (1). All aspects and dimensions of every day socio-cultural
life are now seen integrated in a total history. History is not any more "objective" his¬
toriography but a comprehensive notion to encompass wholistic situations. Royal historiog¬
raphy gives its place to the pragmatics of everyday life. Manners, customs, beliefs, social
activities and their manifestation in the realm of tools, objects, and buildings are seen as
part and parcel of a total history.

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 The context of a particular setting similarly cannot be a dominant architectural style
in one distinctive time in its history but its history as a whole, a field created and charac¬
terized by the interaction of its elements, whatever could be designated and interpreted as
such. In this way history penetrates every element, while relating it to its context (2).

Treated in this way history becomes synonymous with time. Both notions express the
fictionality of their abstract mode of existence and the reality of their particular manifesta¬
tion in human experience. Time becomes an abstraction realizable as particular events; and
history, or total history, as concrete particular histories of things. As Aldo Van Eyck
expressed it:

Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more. (3)

Individual buildings in a historic setting not only contribute to what can be called a
contextual history but are histories as well. In this sense we cannot speak of a history of
styles or even a history of institutional buildings or types of buildings, but rather of partic¬
ular histories of all buildings, additions and changes in every specific setting. Florence, for
instance, is not only Dante's Florence or the one depicted in touristic postcards, but every
trivial place of everyday life throughout its history as well. The old market, a shrine on a
crossroad or even the studio of the Alinari photographers are places of social significance
and aspects of the Florentine context along the celebrated Roman and Renaissance monu¬

ments (Figs 4. 2-5).

Despite the existence of a multiplicity of contextual facets, finally - and unavoidably

so - a certain hierarchy has to be established between them if an assessment, an under¬
standing and an interpretation is to take place. In our interpretation some of its aspects will
receive more attention than others. A new building grafted into a historic setting will be
finally assessed to relate more to some particular aspects of it and less so to some others.
Difficulties in deciding which aspects of a setting are more important in comparison to oth¬
ers relate directly to the ability for creativity on the part of the architect. For the moment it
will suffice to discuss some negative approaches - because arbitrary, superficial or capri¬
cious - towards establishing hierarchy amid contextual facets.

In some cases this difficulty or indeterminacy in critically evaluating contextual

facets results in the provision of a pretext for architectural follies. The group of architects
"Superstudio" in one of their projects for Florence disseminated in exaggeration the predi¬
cament of deciding which part of the past should be referred to in a new urban project. In
a Situationistic mode of anarchic liberty they proposed a lake to cover the historic center of
Florence leaving above the surface of the water only Brunelleschi's cuppola of the Duomo.

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This project was intended to relate to the Pleistocene period in Florence's history when it
was, in fact, a lake (Fig. 3. 5). This project is, of course, a polemical exaggeration but the

point is - although negatively stated - eloquent. What period of Florentine history can claim
preponderance over the other periods in relating to contemporary architecture?

The way that the contextual facets of a historic setting can be fused together to ger¬

minate new architecture cannot be predetermined. What can be said is that whatever the
final hierarchy of contextual characteristics - as they will be expressed by the new architec¬
ture -
they nonetheless all have to be considered and critically interpreted first. This hierar¬
chy is needed despite the fact that the dynamics of contextual history cannot be resolved in
a systematic, unitary way. Hierarchy in interpreting a historical setting is needed if new
architecture is to relate to an established unity and identity. After a hierarchy has been esta¬
blished new architecture can critically approach its context as a whole but from a particular
standpoint It can then derive unity and identity from it while shaping its own identity.
Otherwise new architecture can only express - at its best - an uncritical selectivity. In other
words, it can only serve an incomplete understanding of the past.

4. 3. TIME AS A QUALITY IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT

Every place in a historic setting is characterized and identified by its own history.
This particular history is not simply part of the history of the setting where it belongs. It is
also qualitatively different from the history of any other place in the same or any other set¬
ting. Whatever part of a historical setting we consider as an entity i.e. a building, a street
or a village, we can only interpret and understand in its own terms.

The passage of time not only changes every part of it from an earlier state to a later
one but also qualifies differently for every particular one. This qualitative differentiation of
time for different parts of a setting, resulting in an idiosyncratic development for every one
of them, is caused by the particular characteristics of every entity that we can designate in
that setting. Every part of a setting, that we come to designate, follows its own way of
development, while being part of its context, at several levels. So, a setting is more than
the statistical average or the mere accumulation of the histories of its parts. The history of
a setting is composed by the histories of its parts, but it finally is beyond any particular
one of them, or all of them together, leaving the problem of designating the parts of a set¬
ting in a comprehensive sense.

Space in the man-made environment is considered in this study as actual and virtual.
Actual space refers to space as a measurable formal entity while virtual space refers to the

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content of space, that is, the ways it qualifies time for its development, which relate to the
particular to it meanings in association within its context The former represents the quanti¬
tative aspects of space while the later its qualitative ones . Actual and virtual space change
in time and the shape of human settings changes along with their meanings.

The site where "La Tourette" was built was changed physically by the addition of Le
Corbusier's building but also in meaning and importance. (Figs 4. 6-8). As an actual space
the site changed considerably. What used to be a landscape of smooth hills and an open,
extended horizon was transformed into a dense introvert concrete mass. As a virtual space

its meaning changed as well. The frontality and the solidity of the north wall is not only a

physical obstacle but also implies a visual intensity closely related to its nature as a reli¬
gious building. Time besides being the time of its construction or the time of our experi¬
ence of it, starts to acquire depth by generating meanings and evocations. Eveux-sur-
Arbresle, the more comprehensive setting of "La Tourette" not only changed in shape but
also in significance.
/ /

Rene Guenon in his book "The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times"
discusses the modes of time. He distinguishes between the quantitative passage of time and
time as quality. Time as a quantity can be measured and represents the container of events
while time as a quality is immeasurable and represents the content of events in human life.
Periods of time, according to Guerton are "qualitatively differentiated by the events
unfolded by them" (4).

Following Guenon's differentiation between time as passage (i.e. quantity) and time
as qualified time (i.e. contextual event), we could add that conceptualization of time as
such is qualitative since it acknowledges that the passage of time is differentiated and
locally qualified for every place. Time as a quantity and time as a quality differ in the
same way that actual and virtual space do. Differences between various actual spaces in
different contexts on geometric, morphological or generally on visual grounds remain at the
quantitative level; while meaning and identity in the man-made environment are not
quantifiable; they reside only in qualitative differentiations.

The identity of a particular building in its setting is not based in its being different in
appearance from other buildings in the same or another setting. What is also, or perhaps
more so, appreciated in this building is rather the reason of its being different or, the sense
in which it ls so, even if the reasons for its differentiation remain to some extent a

matter of intepretation or, peihaps, because of that. The appreciation of these deeper
characteristics account for the evaluation of its meaning and its identity. Differences in the
appearance of buildings such as different materials, different styles or different colours can
 then be appreciated as manifestations of more essential characteristics of the unique identity
of buildings and settings.

Sometimes formal diversification of contemporary architecture in several contexts is

considered enough to avoid the uncritical uniformity of modernism and to relate to the
local context. The Building Regulations for vernacular settings in Greece, for instance,
prescribe different characteristics in every setting to be imitated by new architecture.
Pitched roofs covered with red Byzantine tiles and balconies of specific proportions, to
name but two of the required elements, are prescribed for some of the settings in Northern
Greece. Vaulted roofs and balconies with ballustra are prescribed for some island settings.
This kind of differentiation in the approach to diverse vernacular settings acknowleges only
the superficial differences and neglects the reasons for their differences, which relate to
their identity. Of course, the character of every setting is closely related to its spatial forms
but only as a generator of them and not as the specific forms themselves. Some of the
differences between different settings ensued because of the exclusive use of local materi¬
als. Today, not only are modern materials equally available everywhere but some of the
"local" materials for a specific setting, prescribed by building regulations for historic set¬
tings, are scarce if not totally non-existent in the locality. The paradox arises then of
materials imported from elsewhere to meet the requirements for local materials.

Some other differences between various settings are more essential. Pitched roofs are

still a genuine expression in respect to the climatic conditions of N. Greece while the idea
of the balcony is still a basic characteristic in island settings in respect to the mild weather
and its social significance.

What is more important, spatial differentiation is the result of the characteristic

development for every setting and as such it- cannot constitute the means to define its
identity, let alone to create it The reasons for its being different from any other account
are better than the fact of being different. Differences in appearance should be approached
through differences in identity and not vice-versa since identity for a place is much more
than its spatial appearance.

Time changes as a whole, from the quantitative status of a temporal flux into a qual¬
ity printed on some building or some street. The passage of time changes into events. This
transformation of time from quantity to a quality relates only to the particular properties of
a place.lt has nothing to do with different contextual qualifications of time for different
places or the differentiation in the appreciation of the passage of time in different socio-
cultural contexts (5).

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 Consideration of the diverse qualifications of time during the development of a given
setting will help us to discover the role of its particular characteristics in shaping its
development and growth while retaining its identity, or rather shaping its identity in the
proccess of its continuous development. The identity of a given setting will then emerge in
our interpretation as the particular path that history took in this particular setting at
different times, how and why it came to be what it is.

4. 4. THE TIMES OF SIENA AND THE TIMES OF FLORENCE

4. 4. 1. THE COMMON BACKGROUND

The diverse qualifications of time in equally diverse contexts as a matter of different

identities evolving in time, will be better clarified by examining in detail a particular period
in the "lives" of Siena and Florence. This example will also give an idea of the dimensions
-

geographical, political, economical, social and so forth - that are involved in what we

define in this study as context at different scales. What is more important, the antithetical
qualities of time, as for instance rendering something new or old, uniting or diversifying,
constructing or destroying, rendering something ephemeral or permanent will start to
emerge alluding to its dialectical nature.

There can hardly be found any absolute values in Renaissance architecture. Despite
the fact that architecture of the 15th century in Florence has been greatly appreciated ever

since it was built, this was due rather to its being a genuine expression of a specific society
at a specific time in history than to characteristics of some absolute and perennial value.
Our appreciation of Mediaeval architecture for instance, is compatible with that of the
Renaissance despite the fact that each negates the other in terms of spatial form, social
structure, materials, design theory and philosophy of life.

What are the contemporary criteria that allow for equal appreciation of antithetical
paths in architectural development? How can we admire both the Renaissance artefacts of
Florence and the Mediaeval texture of Siena, especially when we know that they were
developing in parallel? Despite the fact that our contemporary distance facilitates to some
degree equal appreciation of them, the point remains about the value of antithetical quali-
a
ties and their relation to human life. Siena and Florence have surprisinglyjlot in common,

yet they followed quite diverse ways of development. This fact renders their idiosyncratic
architectural development a convincing example that every place is developing in its own
way which only is true to it.

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 During the late Mediaeval ages overpopulation caused the creation of independent
city-states inhabited by traders and artisans - later called burgesses or bourgeois - which
were unable to find work in the country. The newly created cities favoured the develop¬
ment and dominance of economic activities and freed themselves from the feudal system.

Freedom of the individual, judicial autonomy and independent administration came to dom¬
inate the life in cities in contrast to life in the countryside dominated by feudal princes and
bishops. Economic euphoria due mainly to the extensive trading in east and west prevailed,
and cities were engaged in continuous architectural development to accommodate the
increasing civic population and civic activities. Leonardo Benevolo writes characteristically:

When at the height of their development, the cities must have been more disor¬
ganised. The most important churches and palaces were still unfinished and
covered with scaffolding, and each new addition to the city's architecture added
a further dimension to it. Architectural unity was ensured by stylistic coherence,
by confidence in the future rather than by memories of the past. The Gothic
style of architecture was an international one, and it provided a common link
between the construction and embellishment of all the buildings in Europe ... (6)

Mediaeval cities developed by adapting to geographical and economic circumstances.

Streets were used extensively as meeting places along with their use as thoroughfares and
developed in an organic, irregular way. Open spaces called campi adjacent to churches,
civil institutions and commercial places and guild halles accommodated social gathering
and interaction. In particular the campi of the Cathedrals, the townhall, the main market
place and the major guilds were of primary importance and the urban tissue and social life
developed in relation to these. Minor campi functioned as the public spaces of particular
quarters of the city which represented administration quarters or areas inhabited by the
members of a particular guild.

Siena and Florence were among the principal city-states following more or less simi¬
lar paths of architectural development until the mid 14th century. The agricultural disasters
of 1346 and 1347 brought famine to both cities. Weakened and demoralized the people of
Siena and Florence could not but face a total disaster when they were struck by the "black
death", the bubonic plague of 1348. Disasters like these had a devastating effect on the

development and progress that both cities had been engaged upon. People were harassed,
seeking less adventure and more secure and conservative ways to the future. In fact there
happened a major turn-back for stability. The Roman past was still an available resource
surviving the rapid development and growth of both cities. As Benevolo puts it:

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 The three prime characteristics - continuity, complexity, concentration - have
survived the passing of time and they still define the basic nature of the Euro¬
pean city; the fourth, however, which could be called the capacity for self
renewal, did not survive the crisis in the second half of the fourteenth century.
The most important creative moment had passed; from then on the cities looked
back before taking any decision. (7)

Siena and Florence quite typically fitted the description of Benevolo for that particu¬
lar time. From that time architectural development in Siena and Florence makes more sense

in terms of their differences rather than in terms of their similarities.

4. 4. 2. THE TIMES OF SIENA

Siena always supported the Emperor more than Florence. Faithful to the Roman tradi¬
tion, it was visited by the emperors Sigismund and Frederich III while belonging to the
state of Milan. At the end of the Quattrocento (15th century) Siena was under the dictator¬
ship of Pandolfo Petrucci. According to the historian Frederick Hartt:

It is no wonder that Siena could show no Masaccio, no Brunelleschi; that for its
artists perspective was a plaything rather than an instrument; that antiquity made
a tardy and fragmentary appearance in their work; that they were little interested
in the Early Renaissance and less in the High Renaissance; and that they slipped
into Mannerism without a qualm. (8)

During the Quattrocento Siena kept faithfully copying the trecento (14th century) in
architecture. The Gothic way prolonged its existence and maintained its authority. The mild
and broad horizontal landscape of the Sienese hills never encouraged dominant architec¬
tural forms. The rather organic Gothic style, seen all over Europe by the Sienese merchants
seemed to be an adequate and secure way of life to abide by. What is more important - in
contrast to the neighbouring Florence - is that architecture for Siena was nothing more than
what it used to be; a spontaneous, roughly organized building development.

4. 4. 3. THE TIMES OF FLORENCE

The situation was different in Florence. Architectural development and the fate of old
buildings was responsive to various internal and external conflicts. Conflict between rival
states but mainly fierce conflict between the Florentine aristocracy and the new merchant
class or even conflict between various guilds was the main theme in Florentine life

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resulting several times in major destructions of buildings. Architecture acquired a special
character in expressing the face of the city. Buildings more than anywhere else were the
main target in times of conflict and the main points of reference in everyday life. Architec¬
ture thus increased its prestige and became the focus of social concern. After a period of
major conflicts, some radical and quite unique for the Mediaeval world, changes happened.
The minor guilds of painters and metal sculptors had increased their prestige by being
absorbed into major guilds and this resulted to an exceptional social dignity for painters,
sculptors and architects.

The feudal nobility of Florence, represented by the Ghibellines in the 15th century,
had lost their power. In contrast to Siena, Florence favoured the Pope and the Guelphs -

the newly formed:* class of artisans and merchants - and abandoned the feudal status of
depending on the emperor. For Florence it meant that the energetic new class could intro¬
duce and pursue its "ideal" and "order" in architecture. Clarity, stability, balance, harmony
belonged to the new repertory. Architecture was simplified and inspired by the Classical
Greek orders as seen and studied in the Roman ruins. Man was established at the center of

the world and the idea of distinctive personalities characterized as geniuses replaced in
importance communal knowledge and anonymous Mediaeval craftsmanship. Enclosed by
hills, Florence developed as an isolated state geographically, politically and socially. It
was more than simple coincidence that it came during the 15th century to favour the
development of the individual. In architecture the independence of the single artefact as an
isolated work of art was in total contrast with the earlier anonymity of builders and the
merging of new architecture in the existing Mediaeval texture. Architecture in Florence was

meant to convey a symbolic content. It presented a consistency and abided by specific

models in close relation to the new philosophy of life. It was for the man on the street to
recognize that a new era had been inaugurated which promised to free the individual at the
same time when at Siena and most of the other city-states in Tuscany the individual was
subservient to nobility and papacy.

4. 4. 4. TWO TIMES RECONSIDERED

In more concrete terms the sign of the times for Florence was most probably the new
Cathedral, the Duomo (Fig. 4. 9). At the same time what was more important in Siena
was piazza del campo, the space in front of the Palazzo Publico. History for each place -

the place of the Duomo and the place of piazza del campo - resulted in a symbolic place of
the socio-cultural situation in each city. The Duomo for Florence became a sort of trade¬
mark of the whole city, expressing the distinct spatial and temporal qualities of the city as
a whole, differentiating her from any other. In Siena after the project for the enlargement
of the Cathedral was abandoned, the antique place of piazza del campo, served as her

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trademark, symbol of continuity and tradition (Fig. 4. 10). It is interesting to note that the
Duomo was intended as a monument; it was intentionally projected as the city's image in a
series of urban embelishments. In Siena, it is our choice of piazza del campo to represent

its idiosyncratic way of architectural development; it could not have been1' differently since
Siena due to the nature of her culture did not seek to create emblematic artefacts. What is

more important here is that there is no question of good and bad process of architectural
renewal when considering the two cities. Novelty, renewal and development had different
meanings in the contexts of Siena and Florence and found different expressions. An archi¬
tect - and indeed it was a time of architects as eponymous professionals and of architec¬
tural competitions - should introduce different kinds of novelty and in a different way to
the two cities, if renewal was in both cases the objective. This point becomes more

interesting if we consider that more than a few Sienese artists were commissioned to build
in Florence and more Florentine artists to build in Siena.

Needless to say, there were exceptions in what could be seen as clear-cut

differentiation in architectural renewal. There were quite a few Renaissance buildings in
Siena while the Palazzo Medici was built in a rather traditional Mediaeval fortress style (9)
(Fig. 4. 11).

The contrast in the architectural development between Siena and Florence shows that
the passage of time was qualified in an idiosyncratic way for every city. Being contem¬
porary, or in keeping with the times meant different things to these cities.

Generally speaking, space - actual and virtual - , interacts with time and enhances its
passage for its renewal and development. Time brings about change by interacting with
what is there, in every place. In turn, through this interaction temporal qualities are embed¬
ded in the spatial structure of a setting. Consideration of time as a quality suggests that a

setting is not a passive recipient of events to come,but also guides to some degree its
renewal. So it will be useful to examine the interaction of space and time not as a cause-
effect relation but rather as a dialectical interaction.

Time is differentiated in every place due to the uniqueness of its interaction with each
particular place. The passage of time does not "push" artefacts, settings and cities into the
future but is absorbed by them while changing them. In other words, time after its interac¬
tion with a particular context, comes to be interpreted as a change in that context.

Interaction of space with time happens everywhere, any time but it does not always
follow a life-enhancing way of development for every place. Consideration a posteriori of
change in a building certainly describes the history of that building and sometimes explains
it. However, the problem of this study is to interpret change and evaluate it to help in

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conducting architectural renewal in an integrative way with the existing architecture.
Despite the uniqueness of every building or setting as contexts of new architecture, some
notions towards a philosophic framework could help to reveal the identity of every place so
that to be renewed accordingly. What we need to consider is precisely the modes of
interaction between a particular place and the passage of time that characterises this
place.

4. 5. TIME AS DEFINED BY ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE

SOME CONCEPTUAL NOTATIONS

A change in the physical form or in the significance of something is the most obvious
manifestation of the passage of time, if not another name for it. Change defines the pas¬

sage of time while it expresses best the diverse forms of interaction between space and
time.

Changes occur in every human setting on an everyday basis. Historic buildings get
time-worn, derelict or ruined. New buildings are sometimes inserted in their place or the
site remains unbuilt. Public and private spaces change in character and significance. It has
always been the case that some changes are for the better of a human setting, some others
less so and some for the worse. It is the aim of this study to contribute some criteria for
better enhanced changes in historic settings and their significant interpretation.

Our need to assess changes in our environment comes from the need to find and
maintain our place in the world and as such evaluation of change is inevitable. Evaluations
such as "for the better" or "for the worse" are, of course, subjective. Yet every setting as a

whole is sensitive to any change inferred upon it and if interpretation can achieve reso¬
nance with its life rhythm, then some hierarchy and evaluation of changes is possible. The
main point, beyond any scepticism about the subjectivity involved in evaluation, is that not
all changes can be equally important and furthermore that some changes are proven to be
negative for human settings. This fact necessitates a qualitative differentiation between
various sorts of changes.

The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer in his seminal work "Truth and
Method", on philosophical hermeneutics, distinguishes transformation from change.
Transformation, according to Gadamer, is change of something as a whole and as such it is
the only real change. Otherwise change remains partial and cannot change an entity as a
whole. In Gadamer's terms:

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 -...transformation means that something is suddenly and as a whole something
else, that this other transformed thing that it has become is its true being, in

comparison with which its earlier being is nothing...There cannot here be any
transition of gradual change leading from one to the other, since the one is the
denial of the other. (10)

In this study the notion of change is used as a synonym for the passage of time. It
has the properties of a generic term while for Gadamer "transformation is not change, even
a change that is especially far reaching" (11). Change in this study can either be a partial
one or a transformation. Yet, Gadamer's distinction is of particular importance to our
debate. First of all it relates change, of whatever scale, to a whole. Be that whole a build¬
ing, a street, a setting or whatever comprehensive context, it nevertheless constitutes an

entity to which change is referred and against which it is evaluated. Secondly, it ack¬
nowledges qualitative differences between changes. Although transformation and partial
change may in fact be relative distinctions depending on what we consider to be an entity
and what part of an entity. Transformation for one entity might be a partial change for
another more comprehensive one. Transformation of a specific building usually only
changes partially the street it belongs to.

Different entities follow different rhythms of development and any change affects
differently various interrelated entities. The notion of transformation also suggests that for
a specific entity, change can either be a partial modification or a total transformation. Gra¬
dual change primarily holds on to the perpetuation of an entity while when the process of
development for an entity cannot go further, a transformation of this entity into another has
to take place (12). Sometimes an old building can be modified to accomodate functions
different from those it was originally designed for. In some other cases a transformation of
an existing building or its substitution by a new one has to take place.

The problem of deciding what is an entity and what is a part of it seems to be of pri¬
mary importance in our interpretation of change in the man-made environment. So far we
have been discussing how changes affect a setting as a whole. A basic qualitative distinc¬
tion has also been drawn between partial change and transformation as kinds of change.
Change of a setting as a whole is an abstraction. In reality it is always some part or some
aspect of it that changes in relation to others which remain unchanged. The fact that some¬

thing changes always implies that in some sense it also remains the same. If it is a partial
change of an entity, it is assessed in relation to the parts or aspects of the entity which
does not change; if it is a transformation, it is assessed on the basis of the more
comprehensive unity between the stages before and after the transformation of the entity

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that was transformed. What is more important, change is not only assessed at the level of a

whole setting. A new opening on a previously solid facade of a building changes the
facade, the building, the streetscape and the whole setting where this change takes place.
But what can be considered an entity, within the limits of which we can assess

change? Is the facade an entity? Or, perhaps, is the part of the facade which gave its place
to the opening an entity, in reference to which to assess transformation? Questions like
these relate directly to the problem of how we designate individuals in general and in the
built environment in particular. They provide a better understanding of the impact of any

change inferred upon the man-made environment. They contribute towards a better under¬
standing of changes in a setting and better interventions upon it. They are of great practi¬
cal importance because they endow a new building with its contextual perspectives, at
different scales, in relation to the setting where it is being grafted into.

In the case of organisms, individuals are assessed on the basis of their ability to
maintain life, although not in isolation from their environment In the case of the man-

made environment the problem becomes even more difficult since entities, life and growth
can only be assessed through our interpretation of them. Most times the functional integrity
of an artefact accounts for its consideration as an entity while anything less than that is
considered as a part of it. For instance, a kitchen or a corridor are often considered as parts
of a entity like a house or a school. The building as an entity par excellence has dominated
the architectural debate. Yet, sometimes we assess change at the level of a facade, a street,

an open space or even a compound of buildings (Figs 4. 12-15). Sometimes the physical
articulation of artefacts suggests their intepretation as a whole. Other times the functional
unity of an architectural complex, even if it is styled diversely , prevails. The levels on
which we usually distinguish entities and assess changes in the man-made environment
also varies according to our knowledge of a place or according to the way we happen to
experience it. Sometimes we consider a setting as a whole, sometimes we focus on parts of
it as entities. If we know the functional unity of a building complex, we can relate some
change in it to the complex as a whole, or to a distinctly styled part of it. The whole issue
of designating and interpreting changes of entities in the built environment, relates to the
intentions for doing so. Distinctions like these are always purposive, intentional and those
discussed in this study intend to relate as comprehensively as possible new architecture and
axisting settings.

No clear cut definition of what is an entity and what is a part of it can be designated
or suggested, as far as it remains a matter of interpretation and interpretation as part of the
experience of the man-made environment cannot be predetermined. Nevertheless these
questions are important in our predication of identity and character experienced in the built
environment.

85 -
 Designation and identification of entities and the reverse activity of classification are

our means to conceptualize entities in the spatio-temporal realm and their interrelations in
order to assess change in context, or else, in order to understand, evaluate, and guide new

architecture in old settings. Change thus is always intrinsically related to an entity, even if
we are to identify entities at other levels as well. An entity is characterized by an identity
if it retains a kind of permanenc* and sameness while developing. Sometimes it is also
said that an entity presents a specific character. To clarify the concepts of identity and
character it will suffice for the time to note that an entity is designated as having an iden¬
tity in relation to itself, while an entity is designated as presenting a character in terms of
its differences from other entities. Identity relates to continuity in time and unity while
character relates to individuality.

In the man-made environment nothing is additive. Even the smallest scale addition to
a building affects not only the particular building but the surrounding setting as well.
Interpretation has to understand the context of any intended change - at whatever scale - as
a whole in order to change it by introducing novelty or evaluate an inferred change. What¬
ever degree of subjectivity that implies it is one thing to relate a new building to its setting,
and another to avoid this consideration or assume that any change - to be inferred or to be
interpreted - is an incident isolated from its context.

Changes out of context i.e.those unrelated to their setting, or relating only

superficially to it finally do affect the setting as a whole only they do so in a haphazard,
uncritical way often affecting negatively its development. In chapter six, the criteria for
such an evaluation willbe discussed.
A

Every particular setting has limits in its potentiality for accommodating change. For
instance a small village cannot cope with disproportionate growth needed to accommodate
large development schemes due to its tourist attraction. In this sense contextual considera¬
tion of the particular local characteristics of a setting might exclude intervention at a partic¬
ular scale. No clear-cut line between what is a possible intervention and what is not can be
drawn here since every case is a unique one. However the main point here is that not any
of
scale of intervention is good regardlessjits other characteristics. Scale alone or function
alone in some cases is enough to disqualify a particular scheme.

Although the exact limits of every setting for change cannot be prescribed - it would
be equivalent to predicting its future and is always the architects, as an agent of the
society, responsibility - it can nevertheless be said that there are certain limits which render
an intended change appropriate or not Problems of appropriate functions and appropriate
scale are thus raised which must always be considered against the contextual setting. We

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could begin our contextual consideration with what is needed in a particular setting rather
than concerning a development program and start looking particular contexts for suitability.
In any case whether starting from the architectonic intervention or the context, considera¬
tion of this problem in both ways could ensure their potentiality for dialectical interaction.

When a new building manages to renew a place as a whole, we then can speak of the
inferred change as transformation and, as far as the setting is concerned, a metamorphosis.
Whereas transformation assumes an interpreter assessing some cause-effect relationship
between external change and the particular setting, metamorphosis assumes an internal life
process absorbing change and every time manifesting what is true to itself. Metamorphosis
is internalised transformation or else transformation as seen from the inside of a setting.
Transformation is a stage in the setting's evolution while metamorphosis a stage in its
involution. This point is important because it indicates that change, a total transformation
or partial change, in relation to a given context can be conceived in two ways: as exter¬
nally imposed and as internally needed.

Architectonic intervention has to acknowledge the contextual rhythm of change, to

understand how a given setting "breaths", the "life force" behind its physical presence - by
virtue of socio-cultural interaction - and the particularity of its genius loci in order to
accommodate accordingly architectural development in contextual terms i.e. rendering them
internal.

Interpretation and evaluation thus have to treat a place as a series of changes and
interpret and evaluate it before introducing any novelty. Contextual consideration is the
best guarantee for the appropriateness and the opportune^ of any intended change, to
renew this place from the inside and redirect the contextual process in a contextual way.

Interpreting the context of a particular setting as a process and as a series of particu¬

lar buildings changing in time, will enable us to understand the power of a new building to
modify the contextual process,and the power of a setting to unite all the buildings it con¬
sists of under its particular identity. A setting considered as a process subdues all novelties
to its development, while a setting as a series of buildings can always be verified with
every new building. Only in this sense will the context be able to change while being
itself in the sense that the life force, so to speak, behind the process remains there (Fig. 4.
16).

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4. 6. CONCEPTUALIZING ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE DIALECTICALLY

The relation between space and time, or else the diverse manifestations of time (13)
as experienced in the spatial environment of human settlements, will be examined here by
following a dialectic discourse rather than any analytic method.

Instead of classifying time in distinctive categories in a deterministic way, as for

instance in historical periods, a dialectic discourse is a adopted, i.e. consideration of time
as opposite temporal qualities. We can thus describe adequately not only the diverse and
even oppositional modes of temporal manifestation but their interrelationship as well. We
believe that a dialectic discourse expresses better than any deterministic mode the relations
between man and his environment as manifested through his participation in it, interpreta¬
tion and evaluation of it, and finally intervention in it. This dialogue between the

experiencer of a particular setting and the setting itself is engaged at an indefinite diversity
of levels every time for every individual.

Some questions about the importance of knowledge about the past of a setting in our

experience of it are raised here. Comprehensiveness in the consideration of a setting pres-

suposes, or in any case suggest, an ideal experiencer who holds full knowledge and
memory of the setting's past. Socially typical experience, involving how the past is gen¬

erally supposed to have been for this setting, however partial, can find its place as part of
an ideal experience. On the other hand ideal experience can account for every potent, plau¬
sible real experience of it. Our aim is not to attempt a comprehensive dialectic temporal
conceptualization for the study of time in the environment per se. It is rather to address
and adequately describe the multiplicity of temporal manifestations as experienced in the
man-made environment, as well as the diverse levels at which people in several cir¬
cumstances may experience it.

Dialectics of the opposites as a form of inquiry penetrates the whole of this study.
This is because it is here considered to be an adequate logical system to deal with antitheti¬
cal environmental qualities, which are nonetheless equally real in an empirical sense and
equally important in human settings.

What any inquiry based on formal logic would consider contradictory qualities,
dialectics acknowledges as antithetical values in terms of complementarity and reciprocal
co-operation (appendix I). Thus contemporary and historic qualities or qualities of long and
short duration do not have necessarily to be considered as an "either-or" question. Both are
considered to be equally real and of equal importance in human settings. Qualities of the
past for instance do not derive negatively (i.e.as opposites to current qualities) in order to
justify our dialectical consideration of them, but co-exist with them as equally real. In other

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words, antithetical qualities of time are inevitable.

The dialectic conceptualization of time as synchronicity vs diachronicity, unity vs

diversity, time constructive vs time destructive and temporariness vs permanence, attempted

in the following pages does not aim at quantitative exhaustiveness or at an objective
representation of all temporal qualities. One could also go so far as to argue that all four
dialectically opposite temporalities examined here are nothing but aspects of a more general
dialectic opposition characterizing time.

This comprehensive temporal opposition as an abstraction of the diverse temporal

manifestations, although it does not define time in any positivistic sense, nevertheless mani¬
fests itself through the spatial environment in contextually meaningful opposite temporali¬
ties. For instance, long and short duration qualities as well as contractive and destructive
qualities of time are with us in everyday life.

Dialectic conceptualization through the four pairs of opposites, is only a frame to pro¬
vide an adequate understanding of how each context shapes, accommodates and finally
"traps" time. In other words, how time is "contextualized" in every setting. It will describe
the contextual way of responding to temporal passage and it will reveal how a particular
context shapes its life, its identity and its history out of the quantitative temporal flux. In
other words it will interpret the way time as an abstraction is "real-ised" in a place.

4. 7. INTRODUCING SOME OPPOSED QUALITIES

OF ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE

Change as a definition for the passage of time, or time as a carrier of change is

dialectical. As far as something changes, it ceases to be what it used to be in order to be
something else. In a reality of changing circumstances, an entity has to change if it is to
remain itself. Any novelty inferred by change is created at the expense of something exist¬
ing before novelty was introduced. Change encompasses both the transition from one stage
to another and also the two stages themselves as before and after. So, change cannot be
conceived but in terms of antithetical yet equivalent qualities which highlight some of its
particular aspects and characteristics. Some polarities are here introduced to meet this pur¬
pose.

Permanent and ephemeral qualities account for the relativity of our conceptualization
of change in the man-made environment. Every change in it, is in dialectical relation with
what remains unchanged. In other words, we assess change according to certain criteria.
Yet, even these criteria change in time. For instance, changes within an accepted style of
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89 -
architectural expression at a given period are considered as such against some basic princi¬
ples characterizing a style. Yet, the style as a whole is questioned at another time. We
intepret dialectical aspects of change according to our current perspective at each time; that
is, we are aware that our intepretation is historically bound. Yet, we consider some changes
possible for a given setting and others impossible. Properties in the man-made environ¬
ment which we consider impossible to change, or we do not think of, are experienced as

permanent; properties that might be plausibly change are experienced as temporary.

Relativity of distinctions such as permanent and ephemeral is inevitable in our

attempt to conceptualize change. As such, the polarity permanent and ephemeral, or long-
lasting and short-lasting penetrates all the other polarities introduced in the following.
Constructive and destructive aspects of change account for the positive and negative impact
of change for several parts or aspects of an entity during its life process. Again both con¬
struction and destruction are inevitable as dialectical dimensions of the phenomenon of
change. Time destroys in its way to construct and is able to recreate due to its continuous
destructive process. The construction of a wall in the middle of a space destroys the unity
of that space while creating two spaces. Within the limits of the relativity of our designa¬
tion of what changes and what does not for a given entity, we interrelate construction and
destruction within the process of its development. Unity and diversity as aspects of change
in relation to an entity account for the possibility of interrelating consecutive changes in it
Changes can be considered either as maintaining some of its aspects or as transforming
others in order to renovate the entity and keep up with the need for its development. The
changes leading from childhood to adulthood in the life of a person can either be con¬
sidered as maintaining the life process of a person or as continuously transforming it. With
respect to every phase in itself, there is a discontinuity, a diversity of the process. But with

respect to the life of a person it is perfectly continuous. A living organism like a cell
depends on its environment for its life. A change in a cell can either be seen as caused by
its environment or as internally determined and needed for its growth. In other words,
change and novelty can either be characterized as an external or an internal process.

Some of the dialectical aspects of change introduced here as polarities, like the ones
mentioned so far, are in the nature of things. However, other polarities arise more directly
out of experience and conceptualization of the built environment.

Synchronicity and diachronicity are aspects of change that account for the experience
of a setting as what it is in the present and as what it used to be in the past The polarity
past/present for the life of an entity seems to be the most obvious way to relate change to
it since the past of an entity is what enables our interpretation of change in contextual
teims. Change can be seen as temporally flat -as relating only to the present mode of being

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of the entity it refers to- or as penetrating its past, since any setting while being what it is,
never ceases to be what it has been as well.

These polarities by no means exhaust the possibilities of understanding change as

experienced in the man-made environment. Imitation and contrast, as developed in Chapter

Three, will be employed to investigate the dialectical nature of change through the pro¬

posed polarities. They relate a change to a setting and as such are different in nature from
the polarities characterizing change itself. For instance, an assessment of the diachronic and
the synchronic aspects of a Neo-Georgian house in Edinburgh will be made by using the
notions of imitation and contrast to relate this new building to what is already there. The
polarities are in the nature of change while the notions of imitation and contrast are tools
to help us place a change in its context. The four pairs [ synchronic/diachronic,
continuity/discontinuity, constructive/destructive, permanent/ephemeral ] are different guises
of change, while imitation and contrast relate all these - change in general - to its context.

4. 8. EPHEMERALITY VERSUS PERMANENCE:

QUALITIES OF LONG AND SHORT DURATION

IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT

Every human setting undergoes several changes due to changing socio-cultural activi¬
ties taking place in it. New buildings are being built, new functions substitute old ones,
new social activities find expression in new spatial formations, old buildings are invested
with ever changing meanings. Yet, a particular setting is the common denominator of all
changes in it. A sort of permanence is necessary in order to assess the changes it is under¬
going. If everything changes, how could we possibly ascribe identity? Or, once identity
has been assessed, how far can something change without loosing its identity? The rela¬
tivity of our conceptualization calls for some features, parts or aspects of an entity to be
considered as lasting longer than others. These longer lasting properties are responsible for
pulling together the identity of an entity and maintaining its integrity, while other charac¬
teristics of it change. Long lasting properties also change; only they do so after having
played the role of "stabilizers" for relatively short lasting properties and after having been
substituted by other long lasting ones.

What we refer to as permanence in this section is the experience of long-lasting pro¬

perties as permanent despite the fact that a posteriori considered they also change. A
human setting, as context for architectural novelty, could equally be conceived as the accu¬
mulation and superimposition of ephemeral characteristics which make it what it is - or as
an entity characterised by permanent qualities and undergoing continuous change.

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 We have introduced the distinction permanence and ephemerality in a relative sense.
No quality can exist for ever and no quality can exist only for an instant. Relativity and
permanence might appear as contradicting notions if we fail to stress that permanent quali¬
ties, as we examine them here, are considered as such in relation to ephemeral ones and
vice versa. Even if the interregnum between permanence and change cannot be clear, it is
important nevertheless to assess rhythms of change in the man-made environment Per¬
manent characteristics appear then to change as well, only they do so in much slower
rhythm so as to be legitimately considered as relatively permanent in relation to others
changing more often.

The French historiographer Fernand Braudel deals with this problem by distinguish¬
ing three kinds of history; history of short duration, history of middle duration and history
of long duration. He encompasses thus changes ranging from those manifested every 150-
200 years and those characterizing everyday life. Braudel renders history comprehensible
through an understanding of rhythms which characterize human life at several levels (15).

Relativity of permanence is particularly characteristic of peoples having a strong

sense of linear, evolutionary history. In the so called Western mind everything happens in
history and a permanent characteristic is one which has been initiated at some time and still
persists. Relatively permanent qualities originate at some particular time in history and it is
equally plausible that some time they will cease to exist. In the Western context qualities
become permanent

This is not the case with traditional societies. For those peoples the permanence that
their buildings manifest are an absolute, always being timeless and remaining so for ever.
Rebuilding as before has some purpose to recreation, renewal and to the eternal (16). The
Japanese for instance rebuild their Shinto shrines every 20 years in the same form. Repeti¬
tion in this case is not copying as it has been shown earlier for the pastiche policy in the
historic centres of Western Europe. Repetition of the temple construction is a repeated
manifestation and materialization of the archetype.

In a relative sense or not, time in the built environment presents two aspects dialecti-
cally interrelated: time as its everyday passage, the state of being susceptible to change, the
situationistic event; and time as a permanent entity. What is important for our study is that
both aspects are equally real in our empirical experience of them and equally important
Ephemeral properties do not derive in a negative sense from the permanent ones but they
are properties in themselves. Ephemerality, as a property of architecture, emits an aura of
change to the man-made environment and infers to it a sense of freedom and openness
towards the future. Permanent characteristics, on the other hand, are not just the

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background for ephemeralities to be measured against. They are properties in themselves
inferring stability and a sense of belonging to the human environment. There has scarcely
been any building intended by its designer to convey a transient value. In most cases

throughout history buildings were built to last. Even buildings designed to function only
for a while, like for instance buildings for editions, make a claim to posterity. Yet, a pos¬

terior'., as well as in every day experience, some buildings are considered to possess
characteristics lasting longer than others.

Both aspects of time are inevitable because they are in the nature of things and their
dialectical interaction can maintain this equivalence and equipotency at different scales of
context. We experience the same kind of difference between permanent and temporal
characteristics either in an absolute sense, as it is the case in traditional societies, or in a

relative one, as it is the case with "Western" societies. We experience and interpret per¬
manent characteristics in a setting, in a building, or in a street directly, i.e. as if it has
always been there. It is as if we apply the permanent dimension of time to measure, to

recognise and to interpret such characteristics. Conversely, we experience ephemeral pro¬

perties as such i.e. as having a particular life time. In this case we apply the transitory
nature of time as constant change, to measure them directly in our interpretation.

The neo-Platonic philosopher Proclus in his "Elements of Theology" speculates on

this point eloquently and helps to elucidate the point that both ephemerality and per¬
manence have an equally independent status as dimensions of time.

Every eternity is a measure of things eternal, and every time of things in time;
and these two are the only measures of life and movement in things. For any
measure must measure piece-meal or by simultaneous application of the whole
measure to the things measured. That which measures by the whole is eternity;
that which measures in parts, time. There are thus two measures only, one of
eternal things, the other of things in time. (17)

Proclus' idealistic viewpoint is evident. He conceives eternity as the "idea" of time.

Nevertheless he contributes to our discussion by stressing the qualitative difference
between ephemeral and permanent qualities and the dialectical nature of time regardless if
they are experienced in a relative or in an absolute sense. In this thesis, we do not share
Proclus' idealistic assumptions. Yet, it is nevertheless interesting to notice that difference
between permanence and change is not only a difference of degree, but also, a difference
of kind. Permanence is experienced not as just a slower nythm uf change, in a different
sense altogether, despite the fact that the intellect can falsify experience and proves the his-
toricality and changeability of everything. This is particularly true in Western societies.

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 Often the physical presence of a building is enough to confer a sort of permanence
amid the various changes it is going under. However its appearance, its function or its cul¬
tural significance change it is the particular physical body of the artifacts which unites all
changes upon it. An old tree in an African village (Fig. 4. 17) ascribes a sort of per¬

manence to the place despite the various changes in the nearby buildings. In towns and
cities old buildings act as "stabilizers" for their environment and counterbalance the chang¬
ing world around them. Monuments, intentional or not, represent permanence amid change
and buildings expressing monumentality attempt to acquire such a significance amid their
continuously developing surroundings.

Permanence is not necessarily bound to material existence. Giancarlo De Carlo argues

that architecture has a permanent value in the memory of the people who experience it,
which outlasts its physical presence (18). This memory relates either to individuals depend¬
ing on their lifetime, or to socio-cultural life where memory is perpetuated through genera¬
tions. The place of Les Halles market in Paris is still important in Parisian life two decades
after its demolition. The recent international architectural competition, signifying its impor¬
tance, aimed at finding the best way to redeem the qualities of the place in contemporary
terms (19). Ritual procession during the holy week in Seville qualifies in socio-cultural
terms the particular streets it follows throughout the year. Moreover we often speak of the
permanent ambiance of a place, an atmosphere it yields and a sense of place which is

beyond the particular buildings defining it.

Permanence as a quality, however independent of any physical presence of artifacts,

is nevertheless physically anchored. Les Halles, the particular piece of land, constitutes the
material anchor for the qualities of the lost market place. Permanence in the man-made
environment is always defined in this study in relation to a specific context. They are rela¬
tively permanent but place bound. They are not bound to a specific historical period, but
they do belong to a particular place.

One could argue that permanence in the man-made environment is beyond a particu¬
lar place as well. But these postulated transpatial, universal permanence cannot but consti-
J
tute only the result of contextual development and qualification and not the means to
achieve it. It always relates primarily to some contextual basis.

Barcelona pavilon by Mies Van Der Rohe represented for generations of architects an
example for long-lasting architectural properties, an international ideal of architectonic
space. Few can deny the existence of such qualities of space, which can be experienced
anywhere without belonging somewhere in particular (20). Although these qualities fall
outside the scope of this thesis it is important to postulate that permanent, transpatial

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qualities usually presuppose contextual qualification first. In Chapter Eight we will exam¬

ine how these qualities relate to the contextual ones. It will suffice for the moment to note
that contextual consideration does not exclude transpatial qualities; instead it ensures their
significance only it does so through contextual interpretation.

The ephemeral character of the man-made environment comes as a result of its

responsiveness to the ever changing human life in it. It is this responsiveness of artefacts
that
to human
lifej legitimizes their metaphoric conception as alive entities.
To define what is life for a specific setting, or else to interpret the dialectical relation¬
ship between its ephemeral and its permanent aspects, are aspects of the same hermeneuti-
cal problem. The test of time might reveal the permanence of some characteristics and the
ephemerality of others, but it does not help architectural development in its becoming. Her-
meneutics - as a means for projecting a setting's life into the future by understanding the
life force behind its past and current manifestations - will attempt to do so.

Again we take for granted that our times differ from the past as well as that they
have some aspects in common. Imitation emphasizes the similarities between the present
and the past and attempts to render characteristics of the past as permanent while rejecting
all the differences between present and past as being ephemeral. Its main goal is to per¬

petuate the "life" of the characteristics of that part of the past that it imitates. But it fails to
do so if it is exhausted in superficial aspects of the past as, for instance, in the material or

visual aspects of historic styles. What it achieves finally then is to perpetuate insignificant
for the present, and for that reason ephemeral, aspects of the past at the expense of more

essential for today qualities of the past, which by not being imitated are treated as ephem¬
eral. Copies aiming at permanent properties - and that is why they try to imitate them -

degenerate into ephemeral constructions. Imitation of what is considered to be a permanent

quality should also aim at - not by copying but in an analogical sense i.e mutatis mutandis
-
the way its model retains a permanent value. In other words, as an act of relating new to
old, imitation should aim at showing not how a historical building looked like but rather

whyjis still considered of value in the present, what is it that makes it endure socio-cultural
changes and changes of taste. This analogical consideration i.e. to catch in contemporary
terms the essence of a characteristic of the past for a particular place, must sometimes
overcome some other differences between the present and the past, such as differences in
use. It is in this sense that contrast is also needed if we want to imitate the essence behind

the appearance.

Contrast emphasizes the differences between the present and the past and attempts to
render the characteristics of the past it contrasts to of ephemeral value i.e. belonging only

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to the past. But if it rejects uncritically the past in toto, alongside the ephemeral. Charac¬
teristics of the past still of value in the present fail to reach it as well. Indirectly, even

present qualities proposed by a new building expressing contrast are treated as being of

ephemeral value only. Contrast negates any sort of permanence but it aims at it in another
sense i.e. by acknowledging change and ephemerality as the only permanence feasible. It
intends to attack established properties by rendering them obsolete but fails to provide an

acceptable alternative i.e. failure to renew the context entails its assimilation and absorption
into what originally attempted to contrast to. Contrast remains ephemeral in juxtaposition to
properties which remain unchanged.

Both imitation and contrast can be creative responses to the permanent and ephemeral
qualities of a particular setting. But again imitation in order to imitate at more that one lev¬
els i.e. the essence of a setting, entails contrast as well; and the same applies to contrast.

4. 9. TIME CONSTRUCTIVE AND TIME DESTRUCTIVE

Any architectural novelty in a given setting necessarily destroys an existing situation

in terms of uses and significance, to construct another. This constructive/destructive process

affects a single building, a street and the whole setting since any novelty is not only addi¬
tive to that setting but transformative of it as well. In this study we consider the interaction
of time with a given setting as constructive whenever time in the disguise of aging of
buildings or changing socio-cultural circumstances "generates" buildings and meanings, in
the people's interpretation of this setting. Conversely, we consider this interaction of time
and a given context destructive whenever time "destructs" or "obliterates" buildings and
meanings.

If we consider that unbuilt space is equally important to the built one, and that any

building operation affects the setting as a whole, an interpretation and evaluation of the
existing contextual situation in it is called for before attempting any intervention to it. In
fact interpretation and evaluation unavoidably take place in our attempt to give meaning to
our environment, even if we ignore the problem, with every new building or any urban
transformation we attempt. The problem that this study deals with is how to increase the
possibility for any novelty to be contextually relevant.

A wall unites and separates the spaces on either side of it. What matters is if the
creation of the two spaces is better equipped to fulfil some purpose. The destruction of the
unity of the space can then be justified. Etymologicalfyboth terms i.e. to construct and to
to destroy share the Latin root -struere (to build). Construct means to build up and destroy

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means to build down. In this sense both are ways of building, showing their inevitable
relation as dialectical aspects of change as well as etymologically.

Changes are desired by people, caused by people and experience ' by them. Yet,
every change derives its significance in relation to what it changes and why. What is
important for our purposes in this study, is to assess and evaluate what is destroyed and
what is constructed in its place, in reference to the entity undergoing change. What is
needed most and why? Taking for granted the inevitability of both the destructive and the
constructive aspects of change, one has to evaluate
j. a particular change is to enhance or
to impede life for a site at a particular time.

Demolishing parts of a setting, parts of particular buildings or whole buildings, is

only justified provided that a better situation will ensue. Substituting the demolished part
with a new building or leaving it unbuilt, as the case may be, should change the setting in
a meaningful and constructive way; otherwise there is no point of attempting the whole
operation. All parts of an existing setting, e.g. such as an old building or an open space,
constitute part and parcel of this setting and are of socio-cultural significance. All these
values and meanings have to be considered before replacing them; failure to do so entails
loss for the particular setting. It should be made clear again at this point that by relevance
we
or
appropriatenessj do not refer to similarity only; they refer to difference as well as a mode
of being relevant. In this sense a new building in a setting may be positively antagonistic
to the setting it is grafted into. Then destruction is justified as a necessary step towards
inevitable renewal. In other words, novelty can only be introduced at the expense of some¬

thing existing.

A plea for the consideration of what exists in a setting before the introduction of
novelty, should not be taken to imply that all the buildings in a setting are necessarily con-
ihat
textually relevant by simply being physically part of it. Sometimes it does happen, the phy¬
sical presence of a building is • enough for its absorption into its surroundings. It is not
also rare that buildings originally met with local opposition, later to become sympathetic,
as time passed by. The Eiffel tower in Paris, for instance, at the time of its construction
was considered by some a monstrosity. However there is less doubt about its significance
to Parisian life today. In such cases the physical presence of a building plays a role for its
persistence in later times which appreciate it differently due to changes in the political, and
social conditions, change of taste or simply due to the acquired familiarity with it. But
these are marginal instances and in any case they do not suggest anything that could be
done towards better relations between old and new.

More often infills of comparatively small scale are "absorbed" in settings with strong

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historical character. An overwhelming context like that of Venice, for instance, literally
"hides" minor additions or modifications and minimises their impact on the context. This is
true even if these minor changes are inappropriate to it, because based upon and/or express
irrelevant ideas for the specific context. Many changes in the urban tissue of Mediaeval
Edinburgh do not ever catch the eye of the passer by. Moreover, it is surprising that one
of the most famous streets in Europe, Princes Street in Edinburgh, consists of so many

inappropriate new constructions, whole buildings and additions to already existing ones.

The overall atmosphere of the street literally overshadows the bad quality of some of the
new buildings. But, of course, the question is evident. For how long can Princes Street
keep its familiar character, if architectural renewal is unresponsive? Furthermore it can be
argued that even in its current situation, Princes Street is rather "enduring" inappropriate
v
interventions than "ignoring" them.

In the majority of historic settings, irrelevant infills remain alien and disruptive ele¬
ments . In these cases removal of a disruptive new addition to an old building, an
irrelevant new building or an unresponsively planned new urban sector, is a gain for the
setting.

Time as an external agent to a given setting is manifested in two ways: firstly as a

"regular" aging process and secondly as "irregular" historical circumstances due to the
Vicissitudes of socio-cultural life.

Time as aging process continuously constructs and destroys in various ways a setting.
The ancient Greek myth of God Kronos, an allegory for time if not literacy time, who
devoured his offsprings seems to hold still its metaphoric value. The oppositional qualities
of time i.e. to generate and devour, are both inevitable. Buildings, streets, villages, people,
cultures appear in time and are subsequently all susceptible to its destructive dimension.

Most radical changes in the man-made environment come as a result of equally radi¬
cal socio-cultural changes. These changes occur in irregular rhythms of change as opposed
to the rather regular aging process. Sometimes natural forces such as earthquakes or floods
cause irregular destruction of buildings too or even accidental catastrophes such as the
great fire of 1666 in London. But even in these cases what really matters is the way that
the socio-cultural entity acccmpe dates such changes as part of a process by interprting and
evaluating them (21). The great boulevards of Paris were "opened" at the expense of
thousands of existing buildings, even reuowrjeii ones,as for instance the one by the French
architect N.Ledoux (Fig. 4. 18). During the French revolution of 1789 most Royal monu¬
ments were destroyed by the Republique. More recently Place des Vosges in Paris was
cleared from additions of the last two centuries and for the sake of purity of style a

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restoration project attempted to create the atmosphere of the hotel de villes, four storey
mansions, of the 18th century (Fig. 4. 19).

The politics and the sociology of urbanism could account in depth for these changes.
Marais, for instance, the area around Place des Vosges, after the renovation project was

over, was not given back to the people which used to live there. The prices of the new

apartments and shops went out of reach for the lower and middle classes which lived there.
A high-class residential and shopping area is today created in what used to be a presti¬
gious quarter of the Royal Paris two centuries before. But the sociology and politics of
urban renewal are beyond the scope of this study. Although their importance is ack¬
nowledged as decisive, these dimensions are abstracted out of the phenomenon of change
as it is examined here.

Socio-cultural changes equally with their destructive dimension, or because of that,

construct as well. Every period in human history leaves behind its own monuments and its
buildings as witnesses to their ideas, their beliefs and their economic and social situation.

Both aspects of time, as regular aging process and as irregular historical cir¬
cumstances converge and change the man made environment not only physically but in
significance as well. The senescence of buildings alone compensates for their physical
deterioration. When a building gets time-worn, it gains in prestige qua old, as enduring the
passage of time. It acquires what Alois Riegl in the beginning of the 20th century coined
as "age value" (22). Time as socio-cultural change, changes the role and the significance
of buildings. Reappropriation or renovation of the existing built environment in terms of
uses and meanings constantly infers new meanings while earlier ones move to the back¬
ground or to oblivion.

Whether this dialectical process between construction and destruction occurs in a con¬
stant rhythm as an aging process or following irregular historical circumstances is not of
particular importance here. What is important, is the dialectic relation between construc¬
tion and destruction, which renders them equally important in our interpretation of the
man-made environment. This dialectics is in fact the path of life and in this sense human
settings follow nature's way. Unlike her, however, they have no autonomous power of
regeneration and it is only through human beings and societies that settings are subjected to
renewal. Changes in settings are inferred by human activities and get significance in human
minds. Otherwise the man-made environment turns
intojjnatural. It is in the responsibility
of every society to follow creatively this unavoidable dialectics between time as a construc¬
tive agent and time as destructive one, in order to develop in a life-enhancing way.

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 We take for granted that the present for a specific setting is different from its past
although it came out of it. Imitation emphasizes the similarities of the present with the past
and attempts to reconstruct it. But if it does so at a superficial level as, for instance, in
reproductions of historical styles or pastiche, it also reconstructs and brings forth obsolete,
for the present times, aspects of the past. Fakeness, generated by the irrelevant aspects of
the past is enough to destruct the same qualities of the past that imitation was originally
aiming at. Contrast emphasizes the differences between present and past and attempts to
destruct what is obsolete from the past by constructing what is new. But if it does so at a
superficial level as, for instance, when uncritical differentiation,i.e. juxtaposition,is adopted,
it also negates and destructs the qualities of the past which people still hold dear, or else,
which still are new.

Imitation alone and contrast alone are equally exhausted when they attempt to be
creative by inferring to an existing setting preservation or modernisation only. What is
needed from proper imitation, proper contrast or else the balanced dialectics between
imitation/contrast is the replacment of historic qualities with modem ones. The constructive
and destructive aspects of time are thus directed towards a critical reinterpretation of esta¬
blished qualities and creation of meaningful new ones. In this way the context adapts to
and absorbs the supracontextual circumstances and the process of aging developing in a

particular idiosyncratic way by holding a critical position against anonymous progress and
modernity. It is only through a creative fusion of contemporary values and the existing
contextual situation that a legitimate renovation can ensue.

4. 10. THE QUESTION OF CONTINUITY:

UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN THE PROCESS OF ARCHITECTURAL

DEVELOPMENT

New architecture in historic settings is often justified in terms of the degree of

integration with the existing it has achieved. International competitions for contemporary
architecture in historic contexts value more than anything else the continuity between the
new and the old. For instance the international architectural competition for Les Halles
market in Paris and the one for the extension of the National Gallery in London, are two
distinctive examples which received wide publicity and concern from the architectural pro¬
fession and the general public alike. In both cases the continuity of the new architecture
with that existing in each place was the prime criterion for the evaluation of the proposed
schemes.

Yet in most cases the issue of continuity is abused. Some architects in their attempt

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to relate old and new, show a concern only for visual continuity as a means of responding
to historic settings, which is to be realised through the repetition of forms or materials
similar in appearance to those already present (23). Some architects, like for instance the
architect Maurice Culot and his followers, being in favour of the historical continuity in a

formal and a material sense, negate modern architecture in toto (24). In the following pages
we shall try to provide a comprehensive view of continuity encompassing its more pro¬

found aspects. Continuity in a broad sense relates to the way a building or a setting
changes while remaining itself.

One way to interpret the identity of a given setting is to discover a coherence amid
the various stages in its development. The identity of Chester, for instance, relates to what¬
ever underlies both its Roman and its Mediaeval times. Every spatial manifestation of a
given setting is only a facet of its identity, the fact of which should be rather sought in the
shaping force behind its different guises in time than in any particular one of them.

The Italian architect Giancarlo De Carlo has shown through his work that a more

comprehensive and adequate conceptualization of continuity is possible. In the following

excerpt from a conversation with Judi Loach he defines the problem properly:

JDL: So the issue of continuity in not really a matter of whether or not there is
a break in time, whether or not the process has been disrupted at a given point
(such as by the Modem Movement) but rather a matter of how the past is being
handled at this moment. It has less to do with the physical conservation of the
past than with reinterpretating ideas from the past in the present.
GDC: Continuity is ambiguous but it is certainly not a matter of time alone.
Continuity can be a very dangerous concept; for instance, Italian historians used
the argument of historicism and continuity to fight against Modem architecture.
But true continuity is not the repetition of the same thing-the copying of style or
trivial details. It is finding a continuous link in the process of development
called architecture. (25)

A continuous link within a developing architecture are the key concepts in De Carlo's
interpretation of continuity. In our terms the process of architectural development can be
continuous only if unity between successive critical interpretations and reappropriations can
be assessed. Continuity necessarily involves diversity - otherwise it results in repetition -

and unity - otherwise it results in fragmentation. In other words, unity and diversity are
needed equally for the sake of continuity.

It is in this sense that continuity is desirable in historic setting and De Carlo

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envisages as the "true continuity", but too often it is considered in a very narrow sense

excluding the need for diversity. Continuity in the proportions of openings, continuity in
the roofscape in a village, continuity in the height of buildings, stylistic continuity is often
taken as a synonym of visual similarity. What this study attempts to emphasize is that
there is no question of positive unity and negative diversity. Both notions can be sterile or
creative strategies for architectural intervention. In their negative sense, unity can be repeti¬
tion and diversity mere juxtaposition. Their dialectic consideration, as equally important,
yet opposed, aspects of continuity , enable a critical approach towards existing settings in
our interpretation of them and in our intervention for their renewal.

In this study, we call unity the quality of oneness in a given setting beyond the
differences in its spatial and formal configurations as they change with time. Conversely,
we call diversity the quality of responsiveness to novelties and its ability to diversify its
spatial and formal manifestation in its way to accommodate change. In this sense, appropri¬
ate unity or appropriate diversity can equally account for continuity in the process of
development for a given setting.

Unity binds together the various stages in the life of a setting while diversity changes
it from one stage to another in its development. Diversity without unity degenerates into

fragmentation while unity without diversity degenerates into repetition. The contemporary
horizon, the current every time situation, is the common denominator and the basis for the
dialectical interaction between unity and diversity. Both properties are assessed in the
present times and they in turn represent the opposing aspects of continuity, as it is inter¬

preted to be today. Maintaining an identity while being responsive to novelty are inevitably
of equal importance to human life in general and to the man-made environment in particu¬
lar.

Every change can either be considered as a static alteration or modification of an

entity or as a dynamic and continuous evolvement of it. For instance, architectural

development has often been understood as a series of diverse spatial expressions. Histories
of architecture dealing with the history of several styles bear witness to this. Even if the
reasons for a change from one style to another are provided, architectural development is
seen as a series of discontinuous phases. Alternatively, architectural development for a set¬
ting can be considered as a continuous process of absorbing changes and being renovated,
while essentially remaining itself. Again, as with the other polarities, it is a matter of
interpretation what can be considered as an entity, what changes in this entity, how change
is being assessed and whether renovation is to be part of an ongoing process or just a
phase added to what existed before. Static conceptualizations of architectural development
emphasize the importance of historical circumstances over the identity of a setting, while

102 -
dynamic conceptualizations of architectural development emphasizes the ability of a setting
to guide its growth through time. In the former case changes are only the new situation
while in the latter the forces causing a particular change remain with the change they cause
and determine, even partially, its future development. Unity aspects of change account for
the maintain-nee of identity in time, while diversity aspects challenge this identity every
time by introducing novelty.

One aspect of unity is the physical one. Often new architecture borrows the materials
of its surrounding in its attempt to relate to it. But is it enough? Even if unity at the
material level is achieved, can it operate on any other level as well? Imitating the half tim¬
bered Mediaeval buildings of Chester associates with the traditional materials of the adja¬
cent buildings but how can contemporary shops function without a glass front? In other
words what about the unity at the functional level? The half timbered buildings in their
time were primarily functional constructions, using the best available materials and the best
possible building techniques. Are we doing the same today i.e. are we in unity with this
aspect of the past, if we simply copy them? In terms of our definition, how can a setting
like Chester, which was so rigorous in its development during Mediaeval times, be the
same with its contemporary phase of timid and restricted development?

Adoption of past typologies or existing formal aspects of a setting are often con¬
sidered as another approach towards establishing unity. Even if we disregard the relation
between materials and forms examined before, how can a copy of a past form be of the
same importance to contemporary life as the past form was to its own times? The paradox
is evident, if we take for granted that contemporary life does not entirely depend on the
past.

We have discussed in Chapter Three how Aldo Van Eyck in his Hubertus house in
Amsterdam had to break from the Baroque morphology of the adjacent buildings in order
to achieve a coherent innovation. He had to abandon the grey colours of the nearby build¬
ings in order to express a lively world of vivid colours and he had to break from the old
austere shell in order to create a playful environment.

Van Eyck breaks from the stylistic Baroque ornament to maintain what is more
important in that, viz., a close interest to detail. He breaks from the beauty of the Classical
orders to maintain the beauty of a lively contemporary environment. He breaks from the
scale of the context to maintain its character in a scale more appropriate for children. The
unity of the context is kept by a critical reappropriation of the what the context is in the
light of new needs, uses and significance.

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 Unity can be conceived as the internal process of a particular setting which relates
"genetically" the setting to any intervention. This internal process can be compared to nar¬

rative time in plots as for instance in the Greek tragedy, where disparate events are brought
together in one temporal unity, that of the plot. In the following pages we will dwell for a

while on this important issue.

The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur in his study "Time and Narrative" and in the
Gifford lectures he delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1986, has elaborated the
issue of narrative to elucidate the temporal character of human experience. In "Time and
Narrative" he examines the interplay of concordance and discordance in the analyses of
time by Augustine and of plot by Aristotle. Using these opposite analyses of time as con¬
ceptual tools, Ricoeur examines the nomological interpretation of history, represented par

excellence, by the French historiographers of the Annales school and the narrativist

interpretation of history represented by the royal historiographers of Britain. Ricoeur argues

that history relies on narrative understanding and narrativist interpretation of history despite
its failing in "integrating explanation in terms of laws into the narrative fabric of history"
yet;

_...the narrativist interpretation is correct in its clear perception that the

specifically historical property of history is preserved only by the ties, however

tenuous and well-hidden they may be, which continue to connect historical
explanation to our narrative understanding, despite the epistemological break
separating the first from the second. (26)

Although the epistemological problem of nomological vs narrativist understanding

cannot be resolved except in favour of one of them, in historical understanding (as later
with the notion of selfhood in his Gifford lectures), Ricoeur favours the narrative mode. As
far as the human self is concerned Ricoeur proposes the concept of narrative identity to
address the unity of self (27).

This background is important for our study because it provides the necessary concep¬
tual tools to interpret a given setting. A setting is similar to a plot "as an operation that
unifies into one whole and complete action the miscellany constituted by the circumstances,
ends and means, initiatives and interactions, the reversals of fortune, and all the unintended

consequences issuing from human action" (28).

Derived from the definition of tragedy in Aristotle's "poetics", the dialectic interac¬
tion of unity and diversity finds an end in the final unity of the plot. Similarly the identity
of a setting emerges as the way it puts together Ltr ingredients, or elements and not as any

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particular one of them. Unity is employed not to abolish, but to accommodate diversity
within a process. So, the connective links in the "life" of a setting emerge as the way in
which transition from one state to another takes place. Nothing remains totally unchanged,
yet unity is secured.

The rhythm of change in the history of a given setting is important in our interpreta¬
tion of its unity. Its recognition is easier when we follow closely the successive stages of
development in a setting than when we witness two remote between themselves phases in
development. In any case consideration of the identity of a context - at whatever level - is
a prerequisite for its understanding.

Diversity relates to the experience of a change as an unexpected innovation in some

aspect in a setting. It can be paralleled with a Surrealist attitude towards a disobedience to
the consecutio temporum , an indication of a new temporality which can be run even back¬
wards (29). It expresses a novelty, a diversification in the process of development and a
divergence from an earlier state of being.

Unity involves diversity to pass from one stage to another, and diversity involves
unity upon which to be projected to be considered appropriate. In this way the context can

develop while maintaining its identity.

Finally, unity ensures the coherence of a setting, or else the coherence of successive
contextual interpretations, while diversity redirects every time the contextual process in
regard to necessary development Through their dialectics a particular setting loses only
temporarily its identity in order to find it back in another (higher, deeper?) level of
existence, more appropriate to the contemporary times, at every time. In other words,
always being itself while developing.

Unity and diversity can only be assessed in* reference to some context. We cannot
simply justify a new building in terms of utilitarian unity and neglect the raison d'^etre of
its diversification in architectural form; nor can we accept as successful, a novelty in archi¬
tectural expression, in relation to its context, done for its own sake i.e. self referential
difference and juxtaposition. Diversification can be justified only when if manages through
dissonance to bring forth the contemporary reality of a place.

In the case of engineering continuity through diversity in the materials, and the tech¬
nics employed and unity in function is enough and it can be found in the majority of all
constructions where the utilitarian need prevails. This is not to imply that engineering lacks
aesthetic values. On the contrary; only that aesthetic values follow the need for adequate
function. The Dutch windmills have been considered, at least in the Western tradition of

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landscape painting, as aesthetic objects of great artistic value. Yet, their raison d'"etre is an

exclusively utilitarian one, to pump water out of the channels in the most effective way.

The rail bridge spanning the Firth of Forth outside Edinburgh has been since 1890/
when it was built one of the most appreciated pieces of Victorian engineering. The road
bridge though , built in the 60's and being totally different from the nearby rail bridge, can
claim equal appreciation to the rail bridge today. The two bridges are different in terms of
materials and construction only to be similar in the sense that both employ the highest
technology available at the time to achieve adequate functionality and performance. How¬
ever distant in time the two bridges are and however different in terms of form and materi¬
als, they nevertheless both manifest a close interrelation.

Can we say the same for the rest of the built environment? The purely utilitarian
human needs have changed little for ages. In fact, architecture has almost never served
basic utilitarian human needs. The massiveness of the Egyptian pyramids, the clarity of
the Classical Greek temples, the spaciousness of the Byzantine churches and the soaring of
the Mediaeval cathedrals have served as the conceptual images for most of the European
architecture, in most historical periods despite the fact that they cannot be justified in

purely functional terms. Yet, matters of taste and socio-cultural conditioning dictate an ever
changing state of the art for architecture. In these cases the dialectics between unity and
diversity operate at levels concerning meanings, associations, allusions relating to the
memory aspects of the man-made environment. In all periods of history we can find many
parts of the built environment which have little or no functional use. Garlands, cornices,
and festons in the facade and the interior of buildings are a good example of this.

Architects cannot claim continuity for high-tech buildings in historic settings on the
basis of advanced technology and new materials only. High-tech buildings sometimes
might be successful interventions - at whatever scale they are employed from an external
staircase in an old building to a single building or even a compound - but not for these rea¬
sons. It is true that as with engineering so with the rest of the built environment aesthetic
values sometimes are attributed a posteriori. It is also true that even engineering is not
purely a matter of technology alone. The complex web of socio-cultural conditions in its
totality is also involved. Yet, in edifices where the utilitarian need is the primary one we
can afford the subsidiary role of other qualities such as meaningful expression and respon¬
siveness to the socio-cultural reality. But for the rest of the built environment where the
symbolic realm prevails and dwarfs what can be considered as utilitarian needs, the need
for meaning is also at stake.

So far we have been focusing on the particularity of a setting in order to examine the

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conditions under which it can follow a coherent development. But every innovataion
inferred upon it must be in unity with some development elsewhere since changes do not
just happen in isolation. It would be a mistake to consider that human experience is limited
to some particular setting. In the contemporary situation it is rather pointless to argue for
cultural isolation. Quite the opposite is the case here since internationalism has been
accepted as a fact for every setting.

For instance we can speak of consistency with its times when we encounter a car in a
rural village in Africa or when building materials developed in Europe, such as concrete,
are being used along with traditional materials. This connection is possible since we know
of development elsewhere but it is a transpatial one for the African village. In fact when
we refer to external historical circumstances in reference to a given setting, it is these
transpatial connections we refer to. External changes do not appear "out of the blue"; they
are consistent; only this sort of consistency is a transpatial one for the setting and not

everyone is relevant to its development. In this study we seek to identify a framework able
to qualify which of those transpatial consistencies are concordant with the contextual pro¬
cess.

A brief mention of some instances of transpatial connections will clarify the point. 1)
All the post-modern buildings in the world: however irrelevant in its context a post-modern
styled building is, it is nevertheless consistent with other post-modern styled buildings in
the world, even if every one of them is unsuccessful in its context. 2) All the works of an

architect. For example, I.M. Pei's extension to the National Gallery in Washington, his
intervention to the museum of Louvre in Paris, and his hotel in Beijing are consistent
between themselves as creations of the same architect This consistency again is irrelevant
to the appreciation of each one of them in their respective contexts. 3) Artefacts consistent
with capitalism and commercialism. Norman Foster's Shangai bank in Hong Kong and
Richard Rogers' Lloyd's Sank in London are both images consistent with the dominant and
ever expanding role of the market in Western societies. Built almost at the same time they
both present a modem image of the f?ank. Both buildings are more responsive to -v fast
changing currency rates than to the environment they are grafted into.
wiiejhev
What is important for in this study is not
our purposes j some transpatial consistency
can be ascribed to what can otherwise be considered as an irrelevant novelty, but to what

extent it really matters for the context of the specific setting. Theoretically, anything can be
connected to something else in some way but critical interpretation alone will justify desir¬
able changes to be enhanced by a given setting and inappropriate ones to be avoided. Con¬
textual unity at every place is what this study is after even if finally some transpatial quali¬
ties are to be addressed as well.

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107 -
 Imitation aims originally at unity with the contextual process as a means to enhance
its continuity, but it fails if it is exhausted in the face value of visual similarity or the
materials used or the geometrical forms employed. Continuity refers to the oneness of the
contextual process in time and in this sense it is coherent development and not copying.

A neo-Georgian building - as is the case with part of the contemporary architectural

practice in Edinburgh - can never be the same as a building surviving from that era. Even
if the layman's eye is temporarily deluded, finally the copy can claim only a borrowed
existence as it cannot fully justify its existence as an expression of the contemporary
socio-cultural situation.

The geographer David Lowenthal argues that even signposting a historic area in a
city is enough to:

...dissociate it from its surroundings, diminishing its continuity with the milieu.
Trying to revive the past does more to dehistoricize the remote past than to
make it vivid, let alone authentic. (30)

Copying, in failing to keep the contextual process going, by attempting only visual
similarity for instance, turns out to be a repetition unable to maintain contextual continuity.

Contrast, on the other hand initially aims to bring novelty in the process of develop¬
ment for a given setting as a means to enhance its continuity. But may well turn into
irrelevant juxtaposition if it fails to communicate with and critically oppose the existing
situation.

If imitation attempts unity on a particular level, it also needs contrast if it is to estab¬

lish unity at more than one levels in our interpretation of it. Equally so, contrast needs
imitation in order to renovate the contextual process of development at more than one lev¬
els of consideration.

The most important issue here is the complete co-operation between imitation and
contrast on an equal basis so that both are rendered meaningful at a multiplicity of levels
establishing a balanced dialectics between unity and diversity, in order to enhance thus
continuity for a given setting.

108 -
4. 11. SYNCHRONICITY VERSUS DIACHRONICITY:

CONTEMPORARY AND HISTORIC DIMENSIONS

IN THE MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENT

Any change, as it is conceptualized in this study, divides time in past and present and
directs our experience in dialectical paths; experiencing a setting as what it is now, at the
time and in the light of the particular change, or as what it used to be before at a different
time in the past. So, change is assessed in relation to the history of a setting as a whole,
altering not only the present face of a setting but also affecting its past from a particular
perspective.

These two ways are closely interrelated and interdependent and deserve a parallel
consideration. In this consideration the past as a whole (the several stages in the life of a
setting) is seen against the contemporary situation and vice versa. But what is it that
renders all the stages in the past of a given setting equivalent to its contemporary state of
being? Even though every phase in the past of a setting once was modern, nonetheless, it
is through the current perspective - at every time - that its past is assessed and appreciated.
The present is inevitably the common basis upon which the relations between new and old
will be assessed, interpreted and evaluated.

Contemporary times not only ascribe current uses and appreciation to the built
environment but also dictate which aspects of the past are significant today. People inter¬
pret the past in the light and for the sake of today even if they are not fully aware of that.
In the context of this discussion the past always emerges as a later reconstruction and not
as an objective set of realities or actualities. It is in this sense that some aspects or charac¬
teristics of the past are assessed to be valid today, while others are not. Contemporary
values dictate which aspects of the past are of contemporary importance, which should be
changed to accommodate the current reality and which are recognised as obsolete. Oblivion
for particular periods or aspects of the past represents that part of the past we are not even
aware of. Yet, even this mode of relating to the past i.e neglecting it, is determined by the
current, every time, perspective.

In this study we consider as "synchronic quality", in a setting or building or whatever

is considered as context for architectural novelty, whatever characteristics belong to the
present in terms of use, significance and appreciation. Conversely, we consider as
"diachronic quality", at whatever level of context, whatever characteristics used to be a
synchronic quality in the past or at least whatever is today interpreted to have been a syn¬
chronic quality in the past.

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109 -
 Acknowledgement of a diachronic quality, it might be argued, belongs to the present
exactly as contemporary qualities become history. Precisely so, since the dialectic relation
between synchronic and diachronic characteristics qualifies both of them as aspects of an

entity, the context we refer to, characterised by their interaction. For example, to ack¬
nowledge through our experience today the characteristics of the Roman street plan of
Chester in England is to acknowledge a diachronic quality of Chester which also partici¬
pates to the present (Fig. 4.20). Consideration of the Roman characteristics of Chester as a
walk about, as an enclosed city organised around the intersection of cardo and decumanus
axes of an original Roman camp, is possible in two ways. First because these characteris¬
tics are experienced today as memory or evocation independently of their material
existence and secondly because they are there today i.e they have reached today in terms of
their material presence as parts of the Roman wall and the street plan. Consideration of
these characteristics, however, is not limited to their original use and significance. Instead
it encompasses several changes in their use and appreciation through several periods not to
mention other historical periods which added their own characteristics to the already exist¬
ing Roman town. In relating new architecture to the historic context of Chester, contem-
onQy
porary characteristics are engaged notjwith the Roman characteristics and their several
appreciations but also with the Mediaeval ones of the same setting to mention only one
more (distinctive) phase in Chester's history. Diachronic characteristics quoted, evoked or
associated in a new scheme, or abstracted out, or even neglected are treated as such
through the perspective of the present.

Conversely, the established characteristics in a setting and the significance they hold
today, stretch their existence back to all its history. The past influences the present by
forming its background in terms of spatial forms and their meanings. It is against these
characteristics that every novelty will be inevitablyassociated with and evaluated. In
other words the historic characteristics of a setting prescribe somehow its path of develop¬
ment and impose some limits on what can be considered as contemporary in it. As a
consequence, contemporary characteristics are projected to the past in teims of origins of a

contemporary use and/or significance or even due to the physical endurance of past
artefacts. For example the Edinburgh castle can be conceived both as a Mediaeval artefact
reaching contemporary times and as a contemporary edifice, in terms of use and

significance, stretching its life backward.

Buildings often outlive the purposes they were built for and as a consequence their
physical duration acquires several appreciations during their lifetime. Furthermore, not only
what physically survives calls for current interpretation but also whatever exists today in a
setting as memory i.e. whatever aspect of the past is of socio-cultural significance today.

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110 -
 Every context, while never failing to be a diachronic being characterised and
identified by its past characteristics, also presents every time we experience it a present

state of being. In other words, as we have already argued in Chapter Two, the genius loci
of a particular setting has a diachronic existence which is manifested at any given time i.e.
synchronically in different materials and forms.

Genius loci refers to the local identity of a setting which relates to all its past without
being confined to any particular aspect of it - to its formal characteristic or any particular
historical period in its past. The genius loci of Edinburgh, for instance, relates both to the
Mediaeval and the Georgian times of the city despite the spatial differences between them.
Furthermore the genius loci of Edinburgh does not exclude the other less distinctive
periods in its "life". So, genius loci refers rather to the way that a particular place has been
qualifying time for its growth than to any specific stage during its development.

The need for one entity transforming through time will constitute the basis for our
examination of existing settings as contexts for new architecture. Genius loci thus is attri¬
buted an abstract even fictional qualitative character -the other being concrete, describable,
pragmatic and measurable - which holds together the different instances of a particular
place through time. This fictional, abstract quality is at the same time its potentiality of
being diversely concretized and manifested at different times, in our equally fictional con¬

ceptual - as opposed to its concrete reality - consideration of it.

The apparent dichotomy synchronic vs diachronic is here refuted on a dialectic basis

where both exist as dimensions of a fictional diachronic entity acquiring every time we

experience it a synchronic concretization and realization, an entity under transformation i.e.

a setting undergoing change. Our dialectical consideration of contemporary and historic
qualities becomes possible and meaningful because both opposing qualities operate on the
common basis of what can be called a "contemporary horizon", which encompasses - at
every time - the current characteristics of socio-cultural life such as the uses and meanings
in the man-made environment. Within this horizon synchronic and diachronic characteris¬
tics are assessed and acquire their significance. This common basis of interaction - what in
chapter five we will refer to as the "third term" of dialectics -. This "third term" both
underlies and generates opposite temporalities, or rather emerges with dialectical interac¬
tion, and needs to be considered as far as dialectics of the opposites is the reasoning tool
in this study.

A new building and its surrounding necessarily enter a physical and visual rapport.
Their coexistential "being there" qualifies the new building as a contextual event. But cer¬

tainly this is not enough to establish a profound and lasting relationship between them or to

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address the problem of relating new to old architecture as a whole.

Every new building in a given setting is engaged in a dialogue not only with current
life but also with buildings of the past in that setting. Our interpretation measures the
potentialities of any architectonic intervention to acquire temporal depth and contextual
roots by addressing and being related to contextual values, while excluding the possibility
of any haphazard architectonic intervention, the attitude of "anything can do".

Spatial coexistence is not enough to sustain the dialectical process between syn¬

chronic and diachronic dimensions. Even if a new building visually relates to the form and
geometric configuration of a setting, as for instance the Building Regulations for the his¬
toric settings of Greece prescribe, it nevertheless fails to acknowledge and express the pro¬

fundity of associations between people and their place. It follows, so to speak, the natura
naturata instead of the natura naturans analogy.

The culture of a place encompasses a set of people past and present and a respective
set of places. What is needed from any architectural novelty is an openess towards its his¬
tory in order to enhance the local history and anticipate its future development and life.

Consideration of these dimensions is necessary not only to improve the qualities of a

place but even to preserve them. There is no such thing as a quality-free space and this is
especially evident in the historic settings we examine here. So, any kind of architectonic
intervention cannot be neutral by just ignoring or avoiding contextual consideration. It will
necessarily be an intervention and will affect the place; only it will do so negatively.

The man-made environment is the stratification of several successive interventions.

The built fabric of the built and the unbuilt space is layered through time due to changes of
function and taste. Several contextual threads lead to the realization of every single build¬
ing, of every urban artefact and these threads although changing directions , remain always
with it or at least these connections, relations and associations with its context are what
make it significant (31) (Fig. 4. 21). A new building enters in rapport with its context in a

multiplicity of instances for a multiplicity of interpreters. What is needed is a conceptual

schema able to interrelate these instances. This interrelation between several levels of

interpretations is of particular importance to our study. It ensures that there is not a mere,
haphazard multiplicity of interpretations but a continuity between them springing from the
potentiality of an architectonic intervention to relate with its context in a holistic sense
(32).

Experiencing a setting in an impressionistic way, we experience it as a synchronic

entity, as the presentness of its being at that particular time. We are not referring here to

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the context's visual image, in a photographic sense, but to its presentness as being alive
now in terms of use and/or significance.

Shifting to its experience as a dynamic, diachronic process, we see it as presenting

simultaneously its diverse historical aspects and temporalities in what we may call a cubis-
tic way. Again we do not refer to its static historic images but the modes it used to be
alive. Diachronic stratification of such kind relates to the notion of phenomenal tran¬
sparency.

Colin Rowe in relating Cubism with the architecture of Le Corbusier, draws on the
work of Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes and discusses the notions of literal and
phenomenal transparency (33). Phenomenal transparency is used to describe the superimpo-
sition and interpenetration of forms in order to "overcome space and time fixations".
Diachronic experience relates to the interpenetration and superimposition of historic dimen¬
sions in analogy to what "phenomenal transparency" refers to in relation to forms.
Diachronic experience is the discovery of the dynamism of forms within time. It is this
sort of transparency which allows experience of the diachronic dimension in a setting, the

particularity of its places and the particular temporal qualification in every part of it.

Having used above in an analogical sense the temporal aspects of impressionism and
cubism to illustrate respectively the synchronic and diachronic characteristics of space, it is
important to avoid any implication concerning fragmentation in our experience of them. No
distinction between the association of perception with the impressionistic approach and
conception with that of cubism is here implied, since we believe that both synchronic and
diachronic characteristics, temporal impressionism and temporal cubism, are experienced in
an equally wholistic sense.

It is also necessary to clarify here that the experiencing self is always treated in this
study as one. Questions as to the "I" and "me" modes of the self debated in social psychol¬
ogy (34) or the self as "I" and "you" debated in existential hermeneutics (35) are beyond
the aim of this study. Similarly, causal or a-causal experience are neutral to our debate. (It
should also be evident by now that Jung's notion of "synchronicity" coined to describe the
a-causal occurrence (36), is in no relation to the use of the term in this study).

A new building, even when it manages to express the diverse past stages in a given
setting by addressing its diachronic typology, nevertheless fails to give it a present face
value. However good an account it gives of the setting's history it will fail to animate it in
the present. Museum-like attitudes towards conservation and infill in historic settings result
in a lifeless and a discontinuously historic environment where the continuity of a life pro¬
cess is missing. On the other hand, attempts to give a sort of freshness and presentness in

113 -
a given setting by offering thrills fail to succeed for long if they lack the temporal profun¬
dity, the diachronic roots and values, needed for a lasting relationship with their context

Both temporal qualities, contemporariness and sinchronicity, are equally important in

human settlements. Diachronicity guides and anchors any novelty and traces the future
identity of a settlement while synchronicity expresses contextual values in a way that is
always contemporary. Synchronic and diachronic values of the built environment are equi-
potent and equally important and it in this sense that their dialectic consideration becomes,

intelligible and important in our study.

Old, long esteemed and celebrated buildings in historic settings "offer" to the whole

setting their diachronic values. Ruins or archaeological sites within settlements present an

exaggerated polarisation of diachronic values (37). On the other hand contemporary build¬
ings ascribe to the settings they are grafted into values of newness by their contem¬
poraneity. Recycling of architectural elements, re-use of urban artifacts or even minor
everyday transformations in human settlements, present both values since they re-address
the problem of relating new and old at the level of the way they are synthesized.

Synchronic characteristics in a given setting are necessarily associated with novelty,

something being alive the moment we experience it, since it has been transformed to be
contemporary. When a new building manages to express this quality it affects the setting as
a whole. Beyond inferring a change in the volume of a setting it promises contextual
renewal, an injection of life and a promise for it.

No intervention is additive. Every single addition or infill changes its surrounding at

several levels; but in order to be considered as life-enhancing in various interpretations, it
has to be absorbed in its life process and anchor its existence to the deepest layers of the
context besides its participation and contribution to current life. Conversely, every
diachronic characteristic must find its way to the present through new architecture.

This potentiality of an architectonic intervention to evoke diverse associations and

relationships with its context is needed for different interpretation in different cir¬
cumstances. It measures its adequacy to relate to the context in the most comprehensive
sense.

To recapitulate, synchronicity in our experience is appropriation for what a setting

currently is, implying all sorts of novelties i.e. whatever is experienced as "being there
now". Synchronicity refers to new materials, new buildings, renovation of existing ones,
new uses or even contemporary aesthetic appropriations of old artefacts.

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114 -
 Diachronicity is appropriation of what a setting has been in the past, contemporary
experience of its retrospective values. It is experience of what the setting has been, imply¬
ing all sorts of historic values in the widest sense. Age value, monumental value or historic
values of whatever nature, are here considered as diachronic ones.

It is beyond doubt that both opposing temporal qualities are interchangeable in our

experience of them. Newness, for instance, can be experienced in historical perspective and
historical values as contemporary. In other words what justifies and legitimizes their con¬
sideration as opposing, equally important values is the fact that both historic and contem¬
porary characteristics are present and past in everyday life (Fig. 4. 22). On this common
basis their dialectic interaction becomes meaningful in our interpretation of new architec¬
ture in historic settings.

In the new town of Milton Keynes we experience all the synchronic qualities we
have been talking about. Modern technology, new modes of social life, accommodation of
contemporary needs fulfill every expectation for an up-to-date contemporary town which is
"alive now". But it fails to convey any diachronic characteristics in the socio-cultural or
environmental realm. We cannot experience any past mode of its existence and thus noth¬
ing can guarantee, so to speak, that this present, alive and novel thing has the potentiality
to qualify time according to human needs. It was presented as a ready-made, completed
spatial organization to a newly formed social structure. If it was originally appreciated for
its promise for future life due to its newness, lack of a past disqualifies it as something
which will keep even its synchronic values in the future. Lack of historical depth neces¬

sarily implies lack of anchorage for contemporary values as well. Every human setting
was new once but at least in most cases tradition at the social level was there able to

render the man-made environment meaningful and capable of growing together with the
people

In deserted and ruined Italian hill villages we experience all the diachronic qualities
we have been talking about (Fig. 4. 23). A rich history which goes back millenia and all
sorts of monuments combined with the time-worn buildings convince us that a setting full
of life in countless historical moments has been there. We nevertheless fail to experience
contemporary life continuing a life process which has been going on for ages. Nothing can

guarantee that it will be qualifying time in the future as it has been doing in the past, while
everything that is there provides the best evidence for its potentiality to do so.

When we acknowledge the equal importance of both contemporary and historic quali¬
ties, their dialectical interaction becomes intelligible and meaningful. Anchorage to the past
and novelty are equally important to human life. If we nowadays appreciate with little

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doubt Mediaeval cathedrals covered with the patina of age, we have to consider that at the
time of their creation they were appreciated for being brand new. We have also to consider
that nearly all Renaissance architecture, which we also appreciate, was created at the
expense of Gothic buildings. On the other hand the need for diachronic values equally
characterizes life as such. During the Renaissance period in Italy amid the renovation
frenzy, sentimental value for old buildings and regrets for useless renovation were not rare.

Two millenia before, the Classical Athenians after the Peloponesian war, although
rebuilt from the foundations the temples on the Acropolis, nevertheless deliberately kept
fragments of the old buildings in the North wall to be seen from the Agora and remind to
the people of the earlier temples (Fig. 4. 24).

The architect Rodrigo Perez D'Arce in his attempt to urbanise and "contextualize"
modem architecture like Le Corbusier's Chandigahr or James Stirling's buildings in Run¬
corn, "historicizes" them i.e. sees them diachronically. In order to transform modem build¬

ings in a meaningful contextually way in his projects, he endows them with sort of tem¬
poral depth and the diachronic values they lack. He stretches temporally the contemporary
image of modernistic interventions, projecting it into the future to root it contextually. A
reappropriation of modem buildings is thus achieved even by revealing future appropriation
as obsolete monuments of internationalism (Figs. 4. 25-32).

In our attempt to understand and evaluate the built environment vis-a-vis new archi¬
tecture, we attribute relations and associations between new and old architecture. It is

interesting to see how the dialectics between imitation and contrast works in order to assess

such relations.

We take for granted that the adjacency between new and old ascribes to them a par¬
ticular relationship. But since anything could be built in the context of an existing setting
we have to consider its potentiality for associations in a more comprehensive sense. If it is
to be an appropriate novelty and not a mere juxtaposition.

Imitation as an intention for similarity between old and new architecture at whatever
level (form, materials and so forth), borrows the initially diachronic characteristics of the
model, and attempts to transform and present them as synchronic ones. Revivals of all

kinds, despite their being separated in time from their models, attempt to associate with
and bring them forth. They attempt to perpetuate the already existing values and strive to
render historic characteristics as contemporary as well.

Contrast as an intention for difference between old and new architecture at whatever

level transforms its initially synchronic characteristics into diachronic ones. Its synchronic
characteristics derive from the diachronic ones of the context it contrasts to.

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 Copying, uncritical imitation, attempts to perpetuate superficial historic characteristics;
but by doing so it only brings forth the act of copying and not the acknowledged aspects
of the past it aims at.

Juxtaposing i.e uncritical differentiation, as an end in itself, aims at reacting against

the diachronic characteristics as its only contemporary quality. It does not present a syn¬
chronic quality of its own, but just a negation of the model it is in contrast to. In becoming
involved in a commentary on the existing qualities, it fails to present an alternative contem¬

porary one.

Experiencing the Landkreis Administration offices at Benberg (Fig. 4. 33) in a syn¬

chronic basis, we can say that its imitation of the surrounding spires, unites it with the con¬
text. On the other hand its differentiation in the sort of peakness is represented by the
sculptural elaboration of bare concrete in an irregular-natural crystal-like conical form,
separates it from what used to be there. Although both the act of imitation and that of con¬
trast imply a temporal distance from the context they equally enter in rapport with it.

We shift then to the experience of the temporal distance between intervention and
context to see to what extent one penetrates the other, experiencing context and interven¬
tion in a diachronic sense, as a temporal process. We take for granted that the specific con¬

text continuously changes in order to express the changing socio-cultural situations. Imita¬
tion negates "context as it was" and "context after the intervention" as successive instances
of a living organism. Contrast, the new materials and the different articulation of the sky¬
line in the new building, confirms the before and after of the context as stages in a life
process. The imitative dimension of the new building confirms the contrasting dimension of
the new building confirms a contextual life which is still in process.

Architectonic interventions should equally confirm and negate their context if they are
to represent and express contextual values in a multiplicity of levels, while being some¬

thing in themselves at the same time. Continuous contiguousness to the context in a diver¬
sity of levels while acquiring equally diverse identification at these levels, relates an archi¬
tectonic intervention both to the synchronic and diachronic temporal qualities of this con¬
text. Imitation amid contrast and vice versa or the dialectics between them assessing the
relation of new to old architecture - as is the case in creative imitation or creative contrast -

unite and separate them equally so the architectural novelty is to be effective towards con¬
textual renewal.

Consideration of the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of time as revealed

through the dialectics between imitation and contrast endows the context with temporal
qualities necessary for its interpretation as a diachronic temporal process as well as a

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synchronic spatial configuration.

4. 12. CONCLUSIONS

Relating new architecture to old is not a problem of spatial considerations only. It is

mainly a problem of interpretating the complex temporal fields related to the totality of an

existing setting. The introduction of architectural novelty means relating a creation of the
present to an already established process of architectural development.

As an attempt to go beyond the spatial consideration of human settings and make

possible the interpretation and evaluation of new architecture in them in a dynamic way,

we have introduced a temporal perspective into contextualism. The modes of interaction

between new and old were discussed by adopting a dialectical conceptualization capable of
interrelating several levels of interpretation.

Considering the man-made environment in terms of synchronic and diachronic

characteristics, we examined the dialectical nature of time; as a continuous process and as
discrete historical moments. The present, at every time, is the obvious reference basis and
the filter through which the past will pass. We can freeze the process of development for a
setting at a particular period and proceed to assess where it came from, what is it at the
time we interpret it and where it is going. So, a change in a setting can either be seen as a

temporally flat novelty, relating only to the time it appears, or as a change which affects
the whole history of this setting and relates to all its stages in the past.

Continuity in the man-made environment was seen through the dialectics between
unity and diversity in the process of architectural development. In other words, we
addressed continuity as a balanced dialectics between what is an internal rhythm of
development of a given setting and what is externally imposed to it as historical cir¬
cumstances. Continuity in a setting was seen as the golden section between its ability to
remain itself, while being responsive to renewal.

Constructive and destructive aspects of time, as examined in this Chapter, revealed

the dialectical nature of time as building up artefacts, qualities and meanings and time as
obliterating them. A novelty in a setting is always created at the expense of something else,
which existed before. So, it is not necessarily good or bad unless an evaluation is provided
of what has been lost and what has been gained.

Finally, interpretation of the man-made environment in terms of permanent and

ephemeral characteristics attempted to reveal that the phenomenon of change itself has a

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dialectical impact on the ontological status of an entity. An entity which changes, such as a

building or a street, ceases to be what it used to be in order to be something else. Yet, all
changes in a setting are assessed as such against some sort of permanence in that entity.
The dialectics of ephemeral vs permanent also revealed the complementarity between time
as absolute and time as relative. In the hermeneutical approach of this study this dialectics
constitutes par excellence the ultimate one, because it reveals more explicitly than any
other dialectical pair the historical relativity of understanding.

Diachronic qualities in an historic setting already exist there while synchronic quali¬
ties are those inferred and realised by change. The dialectic relationship between them is
necessary in order to define each one of them, while they always remain in opposition.

Interpreting a setting as a context of new architecture we have to think of its

diachronic qualities as synchronic in order to create analogically a contemporary quality
which will be as potential as historic qualities are for us today (Fig. 4. 34). Conversely we
have to think of attempted architectural innovation as all historical characteristics once
were in order to analogically introduce novelty. In other words, the past and the present at
a site have both to be treated as contemporary, in considering them as potent present; and
both as historical, in considering them as potential history. Similarly, continuity and

discontinuity, constructive and destructive and temporary and permanent aspects of change
are interrelated.

Change, as the result of the dialectical interaction of the diverse temporal modes in
the spatial environment, is thus always kept within a dialectical system. This system relates
and holds together all changes as phases of the contextual process.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

SPATIO-TEMPORAL CONTEXTUALISM & PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS

5. 1. INTRODUCTION

In this Chapter we will examine how the theoretical framework set so far, can relate
to the interpretation and evaluation of new architecture in old settings.

The first part examines how interpretation occurs and its inevitability in everyday life.
The second part examines how a dialectic conceptualization, suggested in previous

chapters, can relate to the interpretation of new architecture in historic settings and provide
criteria for its evaluation.

The examples analysed in depth in Chapter Six along with others will illustrate the
use of the interpretative methodology suggested in this Chapter and demonstrate its power.

5. 2. CONTEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE: A QUESTION OF INTERPRETATION

5. 2. 1. WHY CONTEXTUALISM?

The context of a particular setting, that is the various socio-cultural preconditions it

presents to any new architecture intended to relate to it, has been adopted in this study as
the best possible touchstone on which to assess and evaluate new architecture in it. The
built environment in a given setting is considered in this study, as the expression, through
actual and virtual space, of the contextual socio-cultural life. As such it conveys all the
socio-cultural values invested on it through time and constitutes the best possible frame of
reference for any new architecture attempting to relate to it and be meaningful in its con¬
text. Moreover, the spatial permanence of artefacts in a given setting facilitates unavoidable
connections and interrelationships between them. Any new architecture in this setting is
necessarily linked, positively or negatively, to what is there. The Catalan architect Ignasi de
Sola Morales in his essay "From Contrast to Analogy" writes:

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 The design of a new work of architecture not only comes physically close to the
existing one, entering into visual and spatial rapport with it, but it also produces
a genuine interpretation of the historical material with which it has to contend,
so that this material is the object of a true interpretation which explicitly or

implicitly accompanies the new intervention in its overall significance. (1)

This is always true, he argues, although he acknowledges earlier in his essay:

The relations between a new architectonic intervention and already existing

architecture is a phenomenon that changes in relation to the cultural values attri¬
buted both to the meaning of historic architecture and to the intentions of the
new intervention. (2)

Morales argues that even the notion of contrast employed by the Moderns in relating
new architecture to existing settings, was a mode of contextual consideration (3). In con¬

temporary times, however, we have moved from contrast to analogy as a mode of relating
old and new in architecture, seeking compromise between them in the place of the Modern
Utopian ideal.

In any case, modes of relating to a given setting always accompany any architectural
novelty in it. It is against a particular setting, that any new architecture in it will always be
considered, interpreted and evaluated. Architecture, unlike painting or music, is necessarily
the unavoidable art of everyday life, always experienced against and within its surround¬
ings. This fact taken for granted, we will attempt in this study to discuss the conditions
under which contextual consideration can be helpful in guiding successful interventions.

So far in this study, we have focussed on old historical settings, where a strong iden¬
tity exists because of a long development. Nevertheless, it seems necessary to discuss the
problem in general, because the exact limits between what can be considered a historic set¬
ting and what cannot, are beyond any clear-cut definition. What is more important, the
problem of architectural renewal is worth considering in all settings, however old or his¬
toric they are.

A comprehensive consideration of new architecture in established settings, is thus

emerging, not without some questions. What do massive utilitarian housing schemes tell us
about the people and their values and in what sense can there be of any significance for
new architecture intending to relate to their context? What do anonymous council flats tell
us about the particularity and the identity of the people living in them? And what can we
say about contextual consideration in Dallas, a city which emerged out of the desert only

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20 years ago? Or, to put it more generally, what can we say of any place which has no

distinctive historical past or a culture which is not expressed in architectural terms?

Even in the above cases, people living in a setting share values, particular to them¬
selves, which distinguish them from any other community. Societies in the contemporary
world although share internationalism to a certain degree, also maintain some charac¬
teristics of their own identity. A unique historical development characterizes each one of
them and conditions, to a certain degree, its further development. Even if the same prefa¬
bricated residences are used in new towns in England and France alike, the socio-cultural
life invests different significance for each one of them and develops in a particular way.
Even if the actual space in both cases is equally monotonous and alien to the people inha¬

biting it, virtual space, i.e. the way they use space and the qualities they attribute to it, is;-
unique for each socio-cultural entity.

However similar in terms of materials, construction techniques and formal articulation

architecture can be worldwide, it is domesticated in a different way in different socio-
cultural conditions. This is particularly important vis a vis the Jbiquity of modern architec¬
ture in today's world. People in Chandigahr, for instance, use space in quite a different
way from whatever Le Corbusier had in mind. Narrow lanes are used as market places and
cows are taken to the fifth floor of the apartment houses, because of their religious
significance.

Buildings often outlive the purposes they are built for and as a consequence people
live in an environment created in different from their own socio-cultural conditions. The

natural environment is always something that people find before them and modify. In his¬
toric settings the coherent local culture that produced many - pertiaps all - historic environ¬
ments has been replaced by a less localised one. Yet, despite the degree of its localisation,
a socio- cultural entity is worth considering in terms of the way it domesticates its spatial
environment.

In Chapter Three we introduced for that purpose the notion of virtual space to
describe the socio-cultural significance of the man-made environment, independently of its
actual, physical existence. Both actual and virtual space in a given setting, to whatever
degree they are integrated, suggest values relevant to the socio-cultural life that takes place
in it. So, even the same architectural forms should be considered in a different way for
different settings in our interpretations, when experiencing them or attempting to introduce
novelty to them. Only in this way we can do justice to their identity.

Contemporary architecture even in these cases can search for identity, if that is
intended, while accepting a degree of internationalism, which is evident, unavoidable but
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not necessarily evil (4). Every place can participate in the world culture in its own way and
new architecture, within this conceptual framework, can adopt a critical standpoint and

reject or improve an existing setting in its own terms. Whatever the proposal for the future
development of the setting, it has to make the best out of whatever quality exists there
already. Interpretation in this case has to discover the people's disposition towards their
physical environment, what they envisage for the future and what they have already esta¬
blished as values through socio-cultural activity.

If the context of a particular setting is not considered as an appropriate model for

contemporary architectonic intervention in it, what else could plausibly be so? A legiti¬
mate alternative to contextual consideration can be found in traditional societies. Contextual

consideration implies a relativistic approach to the evaluation of new architecture. The par¬
ticular setting where new architecture is being grafted into, considered at several scales,
constitutes an absolute in itself frame of reference. In such a context nothing is timeless.
This situation is particularly characteristic to the modern societies, that is the societies
which value more than anything else progress and technological development

This is not the case with the traditional societies. These societies adopt a totally
different philosophy of life. For those peoples timeless qualities constitute their tradition
and are the basis of their life and culture. It goes without saying that modem societies
share some permanent characteristics, while traditional societies are not stationary. But still
it is important to distinguish between societies that subdue tradition to progress and
societies which subdue progress and change to tradition.

In traditional societies the spatial environment is considered as a direct and a-

historical imitation of a model, shared by all members of the society. Buildings are mean¬

ingful in the sense that they all express symbolically a socially shared and accepted arche¬
typical model. The buildings in a particular traditional setting are interrelated through their
common derivation from archetypical models. If every building is a manifestation of the
timeless archetype, every building cannot but relate to other buildings produced in the same
way. Continuity in the built environment then follows as a matter of course the socio-
cultural continuity, and architectural development is not considered as a problem every
time that a new building is to be built (5).

In a modem, secular society the case seems to be quite the opposite. If there is any
common ground between people living in a setting, and we believe there is, it should rather
relate, at least partially, to the spatial environment they share and the meanings and values
it conveys, which have been created by socio-cultural life. For non-traditional societies,
which is the object of this study, the associations between new and existing architecture

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can only be established after a new building is built and according to its potential for con¬

textual significance. In an age of scepticism, the context of a particular setting seems the
best plausible starting point and anchor for new architecture, even if it is to express charac¬
teristics, which go the particular culture of the context.

Modern societies are characterized by a strong historical awareness and a belief in

individual responsibility for the creation of the future. The buildings of a given setting are

related historically as successive in time expressions of socio-cultural life in this setting,

and any new architecture is considered within such a historical process.

New architecture can only relate to old settings in an analogical sense i.e. imitating
and contrasting to them at the same time, in a way which is defined by the current cultural
values. In this sense, historical understanding relates to dialectical hermeneutics i.e.

interpretation of the past in the light of and for the sake of the present, rather than in any

analytical, objective method.

In such a relativistic approach, where the existing context and not some archetypal
model suggests the values to be imitated by new architecture, the diametrical opposition
between Modern and traditional societies is confirmed. In modem architecture, the indivi¬

dual building "attempts" to be significant on its own; it claims universality and the status of
a model in itself. In traditional architecture, the individual building manifests a preexisting
archetype and derives its importance from it.

In the Western context, even the most celebrated works of art cannot constitute objec¬
tive archetypes for imitation, i.e. archetypes of objective value for everyone. Even the Clas¬
sical Greek architecture, postulated by the exponents of the Modem Movement as the
universal source of architectural values par excellence, cannot be considered as such (6).
Aesthetic relativity ensues, implying that we have to look for artistic beauty in contextual
terms.

5. 2. 2. THE HERMENEUTICS OF ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE:

INTERPRETING NEW ARCHITECTURE IN OLD SETTINGS

Architectural creation, contextually seen, derives from an understanding of the setting

and its evaluation. Through the dialectics between imitation and contrast, new architecture
can express an interpretation of its context in contemporary terms. Interpretation relates not
only to what exists in a given setting, but also reveals the contemporary point of view, at
the time it is experienced.

In assessing relations between old and new architecture, the question of interpretation

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is a fundamental one to the whole thesis; it refers to the way we understand and evaluate
our physical environment (7). It is within an interpretative process that we assess imitation
and contrast between a given setting and new architecture in it New architecture in a his¬
toric setting is mainly evaluated against its surroundings and as a consequence it comes to

express, manifest and finally acquire in itself a certain way of understanding its surround¬
ings and communicating with them, whether this is the intention of the architect or not.

This interpretation process occurs not only in our attempt, collectively, to evaluate new
architecture in a historic setting after it has been built, but also provisionally to guide archi¬
tectural intervention.

New architecture in a historic setting can generate a diversity of interpretations

depending on the diversity of people who experience it or, perhaps, the different times they
experience it. Yet all interpretations are linked by a common purpose; to accommodate a
specific novelty in a setting. However varied interpretations can be, they are nonetheless in
close relation to a particular architectural novelty, built or intended to be built. A given set¬
ting cannot be interpreted in a definite, absolute sense. Its identity is in constant develop¬
ment and as such it can only be defined vis a vis a specific project for intervention in it. It
might be two different things for two different interventions. For instance, it might be
appropriate to keep some of the characteristics of a setting in view of a large scale
development, while it would be more appropriate a total contrast in the case of a minor
change in a building. What a setting is, depends also on the character of the intervention,
its functional purpose and so forth. So, we cannot argue for an interpretation of a given
setting, but rather an interpretation process defined by both, old and new architecture. This
interpretative process can relate either to a finished building or to a project for a new build¬
ing. Interpretation is constantly defined and regulated by both sides; what a setting has
been and what it "wants to be" vis a vis an intended intervention and what the intervention

can be in this particular setting, how new architecture can relate to a given setting and
plunge into its historical depth and be incorporated in its process. This bilateral definition
of architectural renewal, and architectural change in general, can, perhaps, ensure that the
development in a setting proceeds "in a growth conductive and life enhancing way" (8).

Interpretation thus is a twofold operation; it relates to the past as much as to the

present, future aspirations being part of the present. It continuously shifts from the context
before renovation to the context after its renewal. Appropriate intervention and contextual
continuity can be defined from both perspectives; what the context has always been and
what it is about to become. In other words, interpretation of new architecture in a historic
setting, as it is used in this study, should attempt a fusion between new architecture con-
textually derived and its context in view of new architecture in it. The dialectics between
imitation and contrast, in relating new architecture to old, can also describe the

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interpretation of this relation as a process of understanding, whose end is either to evaluate
a new building or guide its creation. Interpretation is here intended to be a constant media¬
tion between past and present and not an objective understanding of the past.

The notion of interpretation treated in this sense surely touches on a much more gen¬

eral field of theoretical enquiry. The theory of philosophical hermeneutics, as developed by

Hans-Georg Gadamer, constitutes such a field,fromwhich we can draw for the purposes of this
study. In the following pages we will attempt to show that Gadamer's theory illuminates
the specific problem of architectural renewal, as a problem of interpretation, and endows it
with a catholic significance and broader perspectives.

The problem of architectural renewal is basically a hermeneutical one, or at least it

will be considered so in this study. As a consequence, the theoretical approach adopted
here is embedded in the broader debate concerning human understanding. Philosophical
hermeneutics developed vis a vis the specific architectural problem, will provide a theoreti¬
cal framework sufficient to enhance architectural interpretation and evaluation and to guide
architectural creation. Ontological hermeneutics as an interpretative method defies the
demonstration of its power and its illustration in terms of analytic applications. So, we will
rather refer to the case studies discussed later in Chapter Six in a general sense, treating
them as particular instances of the more comprehensive theoretical framework discussed in
this chapter.

5. 3. THE ONTOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS OF HANS-GEORG GADAMER

IN RELATION TO ARCHITECTURE

The woik of the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer will be the hub of our

theoretical framework the aim of which is to contribute towards a theory of meaning con¬

cerning architectural change in general and the relation of new architecture to old in partic¬
ular. Gadamer's seminal work "Truth and Method" provides an excellent investigation of
the phenomenon of understanding in the broadest sense (9).

Understanding for Gadamer is a central phenomenon of human life. Interpretation

constitutes our whole world and the only reality we, collectively, live in and make sense
of. Gadamer, throughout his worit, attempts to establish the fundamental issues of a theory
of meaning. Towards this end he proceeds along the lines of the late Heideggerian ontolog¬
ical hermeneutics. There are several reasons for using Gadamer's theory in this thesis. For
Gadamer meaning resides only m our dialogical encounter with the past as a whole, what
he calls tradition. He clearly shows that life itself is this dialogue with the past, the

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dialogue between past and present. In the following we will examine some of the basic
points in Gadamer's work in relation to the purposes of this thesis.

Interpretation for Gadamer entails fusion of historical horizons in the light of the
present rather than a single horizon of the present. As he expresses it:

_...the horizon of the present cannot be formed without the past. There is no
more an isolated horizon of the present than there are historical horizons.
Understanding, rather, is always the fusion of these horizons which we imagine
to exist by themselves...In a tradition this process of fusion is continually going
on, for the old and new continually grow together to make something of liv¬
ing value, without either being explicitly distinguished from the other. (10)

Tradition in Gadamer's theory encompasses far more than the past we, collectively,
are aware of. Tradition is whatever claims an affinity with us. This point provides a use¬

ful springboard for the inteipretation of architectural change, which is the subject of this
study. The architecture of the past, whatever periods of history it has survived from, makes
a claim upon us, collectively, by virtue of its participation in contemporary socio-cultural
life. Apart from the physical encounter with historic buildings of several periods, the col¬
lective memory of a society is constituted from its past. Our relation with the architecture
of the past goes far beyond the historical periods we have a knowledge of. In fact, the
architecture of the past defines the terms and conditions or our encounter with new archi¬
tecture. Tradition, conceptualized in these terms, is whatever links the interpreter and new
architecture (11).

Historical settings, seen as contexts for new architecture, should be rather understood
in the contemporary way and against the framework of contemporary values. Values which
have no contemporary significance cannot reach our present horizon of understanding. As
Gadamer writes:

Historical consciouness is aware of its own otherness and hence distinguishes

the horizon of tradition from its own... The projecting of the historical horizon,
then, is only a phase in the process of understanding, and does not become
solidified into the self-alienation of a past consciousness, but is overtaken by
our own present horizon of understanding. In the process of understanding there
takes place a real fusing of horizons, which means that as the historical horizon
is projected, it is simultaneously removed. (12)

127 -
 Prejudices for Gadamer are the conditions for understanding. They constitute what we

are and as such they are rather enabling than prohibiting the understanding of the past.
Gadamer argues that we cannot bracket them, for there is no knowledge and no under¬
standing without them. Yet, as soon as we accept the value of prejudices, a problem creeps
in. How can we distinguish blind prejudices from prejudices productive of knowledge?
Gadamer answers, that it is only through our openness to the truth that tradition claims, that
we can constantly test our prejudices about understanding. As Richard Bernstein comments
on this point:

In opposition to Descarte's monological notion of purely rational self reflection

by which we can achieve transparent self-knowledge, Gadamer tells us that it is
only through the dialogical encounter with what is at once alien to us, makes a
claim upon us, and has an affinity with what we are that we can open ourselves
to risking and testing our prejudices. This does not mean that we can ever

finally complete such a project, that we can ever achieve complete self-
transparency, that we can attain the state which Descartes ( and in another sense

Hegel) claim is the telos of such a project, the attainment of perfect or abso¬
lute knowledge. To think that such a possibility is a real possibility is to fail to
do justice to the realization that prejudices "constitute our being": that it literally
makes no sense to think that a human being can ever be devoid of prejudices.
To risk and test our prejudices is a constant task (not a final achievement). (13)

Thus, interpretation actually and inevitably occurs as a process of wholistic experi¬

ences, outside the scope of any analytic mode of understanding, yet ontologically

significant. We need to emphasize here the inadequacy of reason vis a vis understanding of
tradition, because reason, by functioning within it, cannot make any claim upon tradition.

Due to the role that Gadamer ascribes to preunderstanding, his theory of philosophi¬
cal hermeneutics has been described by Jurgen Habermas as "a rehabilitation of prejudice"
(14). It is true that preunderstanding, or what Heidegger called fore-structure of
knowledge, is exactly the point where all metaphysical assumptions in Gadamer's theory
converge. Nevertheless, preunderstanding is a necessary and unavoidable metaphysical
basis, in order to describe best the phenomenon of understanding in general. We always

intapret on the basis of some conceptualization, which again is a form of understanding.

Understanding thus is a cyclical process, which nevertheless is ontologically positive at
several levels it manifests itself. As Gadamer puts it:

In fact the horizon of the present is being continually formed, in that we have
continually to test all our prejudices. An important encounter of this testing is

128 -
 the encounter with the past and the understanding of the tradition from which
we come. (15)

And he argues that "This recognition that all understanding inevitably involves some
prejudice gives the hermeneutical problem its real thrust" (16). It was the prejudice of the
Enlightment against prejudice, Gadamer argues, which gave a negative aspect to the term.

We have discussed elsewhere that by context we mean all the preconditions that a

new building will meet in a given setting. These preconditions relate to people's preunder-
standing of their setting. This preunderstanding constitutes the tradition to be interpreted,
evaluated and renewed with every new building in that setting (17).

Understanding, interpretation and application, Gadamer argues, are one unified pro¬
cess (18). Prejudices are the conditions of this process, which proceeds from a pre¬
understanding of the whole to the understanding of the part and back to the whole again,
establishing the circularity of understanding. In Gadamer's words:

The movement of understanding is constantly from the whole to the part and
back to the whole. Our task is to extend in concentric circles the unity of the
understood meaning. The harmony of all the details with the whole is the cri¬
terion of correct understanding. The failure to achieve this harmony means that
understanding has failed. (19)

Thus understanding is conceived as a self propagated circular process which "is nei¬
ther subjective nor objective, but describes understanding as the interplay of the movement
of tradition and the movement of the interpreter"(20). Gadamer, following Heidegger, con¬

ceives the circle of understanding not as a methodological one, but as an ontological struc¬
tural element of understanding. He diverges from the Heideggerian existentialism when he
acknowledges the communicative aspects of understanding when he writes:

The anticipation of meaning that governs our understanding of a text is not an

act of subjectivity, but proceeds from the communality that binds us to the trad¬
ition. (21)

At this point Gadamer clearly moves away from the Heideggerian Being towards
Language, as late Heideggerian philosophy had suggested (22). Gadamer clearly abandons
the objectivity and the universality of existential hermeneutics and grounds his philosophy
to the relativity and communality of its linguistic medium. The existence of a language in

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all circumstances of human experience is a universal phenomenon; yet, every language
brings forth the Being in its own teims. Thus tradition is essential if we are to understand
the Being. This point is extremely important to support our argument about the contextual
derivation of meaning and criteria for the evaluation of novelties in it It shows the need
for contextual engagement of new architecture in order to become meaningful (23).

According to Gadamer, interpretation attempts to justify what is there and, at its best,
can go as far as to grasp the reality of the past for the sake of the present (24). The hor¬
izon of the present and the prejudices it entails, is an obstacle which must be overcome by
being aware of our prejudices, in order to reveal the truth of the past. He treats tradition as
the basis of our dialogue with it and as such tradition cannot be questioned. Tradition, as a
closed system, has in itself all the power and the authority for its future understandings-
interpretations-applications. If interpretation fails to acknowledge this, it must remedy this
situation.

Tradition for Gadamer is an overall ontological and epistemological process within

which we, collectively, are trapped. Yet it does not confine our understanding; on the con¬

trary it enables it and provides a measure of objective control against which we can test
our prejudices in our understanding of things.

As we have noted already, tradition for Gadamer encompasses not only what we

recognize as our past but even what we do not. Tradition makes a claim upon us and our

openness towards it, is the best way to test our prejudices. Thus, Gadamer, despite the fact
that he suggests our dialogue with tradition as the way to truth, is finally inclined to
accept that truth lies on the side of tradition. He clearly acknowledges the authority that
tradition exercizes upon us by claiming its relevance to our lives. Gadamer thus accepts a

hierarchy for the present in which tradition occupies the rank of authority.

Our reservationabaiGadamer's approach, in the context and for the purposes of this
study, concerns this last point. Interpretation is here considered for the sake of the new as
well, which also claims an equal with tradition authority upon us and relevance to our
lives. Interpretation illuminates and evaluates the old not only within its tradition, but in
the light and for the sake of the present (with its future aspirations) as well. Our aim is
not confined to revsafinothe meaning and relevance of the architecture of the past for the
architecture of the present for the present, but mdineAfeiixmgiTiii the architecture of the past as well
by introducing novelty to it. Interpreting the past in contemporary terms is only part of the
present horizon and novelty cannot be confined only to the way we appreciate historic
buildings. A critical disposition towards the past and its transformation according to our
future aspirations is also possible. New architecture will partially emerge out of a

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 be
dialogue with the past of the locality it is to be grafted into, but not/totally determined by
can

it. Only in this way./ the dialogue between old and new architecture — receive its full
value. The tradition in a setting is neither a necessary evil we have to abandon in order to
introduce novelty to it, nor is it an ideal to be perpetuated as it is. It is a reality we, collec¬
tively, attempt to interpret for the present's sake. The architecture of the past, thus, guides,
anchors and conditions contemporary architectural creation, without constituting its ideal
end.

If truth for Gadamer lies nearer to tradition than anything else, in this study we
intend to conceive the dialogue between us and our tradition not as the dialogue between
what is there in the tradition and our remoteness from it. It is not a dialogue to recover the
authority of tradition, but a dialogue towards renewing tradition and creating the tradition
of the future as well. We not only happen to be distanced from our tradition; we also want
to go away from it as well. Our relation to tradition is a move to and from it, whatever
part of it we are aware of. Moving away from the truth of tradition is not necessarily a
predicament of the human situation; it also expresses the human will to change it, however
if
itself is part of tradition. Novelty does not come inevitably in our attempt to make sense of
our past in contemporary terms, but it is intended too, in the light of whatever makes our
times different from our tradition.

Whatever kind of truth it is that Gadamer attributes to tradition, which is manifested

in texts and works of art, we think it rather lies in our dialogue with them in our under¬
standing of them, than in either side of it. This process alone can claim its potential for
truth as long as it is kept operative. If novelty and tradition, as opposites, can sustain a

process of dialectical interaction, in our interpretation of the past, they are then able to
create a potential field for truth. Otherwise, if truth is closer to tradition or closer to
novelty, the dialogue between tradition and novelty is biased and predetermined. If tradi¬
tion claims an authoritative role in this dialogue, as Gadamer argues, then its superiority
will reverberate at all the stages of its interaction with novelty.

In this study we conceive tradition and novelty as dialectical opposites, equipotent

and equivalent to our lives. If the need for novelty is within a tradition itself, then it is
novelties that make traditions too. But if tradition cannot provide a measure of objective
control in our interpretation of it and intervention to it, what could possibly be considered
instead? It is suggested that a dialogue between tradition and novelty, as far as it can be
kept alive and operative, can be such a touchstone for validity in our interpretation and
evaluation of both, tradition and novelty. The openess of the interpretative process proves
best the indefinite circularity of our understanding. Interpretation is conceived as an
indefinite process of moving from the whole to the parts and vice versa. This process of

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understanding can never be a closed and finite one; yet it is ontologically significant in its
way. To remain open in this process, and we agree with Gadamer at this point, is the best
we can do to achieve truth, within a tradition we belong to.

Hannah Arendt challenges Gadamer's theory on similar grounds (25). She challenges
Gadamer's key concept of tradition by the concept of revolution, or revolution mentality.
Although Arendt's remarks are more concerned with the practical and political aspects of
philosophy, they expose the inadequacy of Gadamer's dialectics as such. She argues that;

Authority is incompatible with persuasion, which pressuposes equality and

works through a process of argumentation. Where arguments are used, authority
is left in abeyance. Against the egalitarian order of persuasion stands the author¬
itarian order, which is always hierarchical. (26)

True dialectics presuppose equality rather than hierarchy. So, although truth is never

complete, the process itself is constructive.

Preunderstanding, as a part of tradition itself, is subject to interpretation only towards

a better understanding, without ever to be abolished. It accompanies the interpretative pro¬
cess throughout without ever giving its place to "objective" knowledge. It is our belief that
however ahistorical our attempts to understand are, or subject of modifications in the light
of new evidence, they nevertheless are complete. Interpretation is thus considered as a
series ofwholistic approaches (27).

Preunderstanding is a human reality deriving from our being in the world. It accom¬

panies us in our attempt to make sense of the world we live in and ourselves. As such it
resists any analytical reasoning. In this study we adopt the notion of preunderstanding,
after Heidegger and Gadamer (28), as the most acceptable metaphysical foundation for our
discussion. In fact, all positivist theories of interpretation (29), or critical hermeneutics
(30), argue for a "tabula rasa" approach to understanding. Their assumption of a "zero
degree" of understanding, which could lead to an objective interpretation, is equally meta¬
physical.

A strong belief underlies this thesis that we have to make the best elaboration and use
of an accepted subjectivity towards objectivity rather than seeking the objective way of
understanding by neglecting the relativity (historical and subjective) of our understanding.
Even if there is such a thing as objectivity in understanding, it is beyond human grasp and
acquires its meaning only as a fictitious end. It becomes a metaphysical end this time and
not a metaphysical starting point.

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 In the meanwhile understanding takes place at several levels of everyday social
interaction and human life. As lack of a manual of physics does not prevent us from riding
a bicycle, to the same extent, we think, the fact that understanding is inevitably subjective,
does not prohibit human knowledge from being formulated at every stage of its develop¬
ment and being advanced.

This is not to suggest the unimportance of methodic historical research in revealing

and understanding the past. In fact quite the opposite is the case; historical understanding
informs and participates in the interpretation process, but it is a dimension of understanding
and not its whole reality.

Even if we take for granted the inevitability of pre-understanding for interpretation, it

is still necessary to consider its dimensions,i.e. the levels on which interpretation takes
place, in relation to the object of understanding. How do we interpret new architecture in
relation to its context? Materials, construction techniques, texture, colours, formal
configuration, spatial disposition and volumetric articulation are some levels on which
interpretation can take place on visual grounds i.e. relating to its appearance. The func¬
tional level, the way new and old function interrelate can be another one. Furthermore,
understanding can consider the symbolic mediation of the above cited parts or aspects of a
new building in relation to its setting. Interpretation thus relates to the designation or recog¬
nition of several aspects at several levels of consideration, their interrelations and their con¬

textual significance (31).

A new building, while relating to its context through several of its parts and aspects,
introduces novelty at several levels of contextual consideration. Novel aspects of a new

building, the others being those derived from the context, can be conceived as such across
the entity of the building, the entity of the street it belongs to and so forth. Whatever rela¬
tions we can assess, at several levels, between new architecture and existing setting they
can be interpreted within time i.e. how they operate, how they change and how they
develop, so that to relate new and old in temporal perspective.

5. 4. STRUCTURATION OF LEVELS IN ARCHITECTURAL HERMENEUTICS

5. 4. 1. LEVELS OF INTERPRETATION IN PAUL RICOEUR'S HERMENEUTICS

The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur in his study "Time and narrative" develops a
theoretical framework similar to the one developed in this thesis, in order to examine the
correlation between narrative, i.e. narrating a story, and the temporal character of human

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experience. As Ricoeur puts it:

whatever the innovative force of poetic composition within the field of our

temporal experience may be, the composition of the plot is grounded in a

preunderstanding of the world of action, its meaningful structures, its symbolic

resources, and its temporal character. These features are described rather than
deduced. (32)

In arguing so, Ricoeur not only places poetic composition in context but he also indi¬
cates some of the levels on which preunderstanding, interpretation and finally evaluation
take place. Meaningful structures, symbolic resources and the temporal character of any
novelty are some of its basic characteristics, according to which every novelty is evaluated
against the background of our preunderstanding of the context. Based on the Aristotelian
definition of plot, Ricoeur considers a plot as being an imitation of action and proceeds to
ground preunderstanding in action (i.e. the semantics of action, its symbolic mediation and
its capacity to be narrated). These levels of human action are subsequently to be imitated
by narrative.

These aspects, dimensions or levels of action can form a useful analogy in our
attempt to examine interpretation in relation to preunderstanding. Similarly to Ricoeuris
analysis, interpretation of new architecture in relation to its context is a twofold operation,
is presupposition and transformation. Presupposition is formed according to the contex¬
tual preconditions, while transformation of these presupositions occurs in the light of an
introduced novelty. A given setting establishes the preconditions. However our interpreta¬
tion might transform them in the light of several contextual levels of consideration, it is
through contextual engagement that it will acquire its innovative potential.

Preunderstanding of the visual, the structural and the symbolic aspects of a setting
before its renewal, however different for different people, conditions the interpretation of
new architecture in it. No uniform system of interpretive levels can be a blueprint, since the
designation and interpretation of levels depend on the particular situation every time and
the entities we identify and assess change on. What is a part of an entity, what is a whole
and in what sense does it change, and how does it affect its context have all to do with the
particularity of our experience of them. Furthermore, the levels on which we interpret new
architecture depend on the symbolism we can ascribe to each entity within several times in
history. Of course, symbolic potential can precede to guide our designation of parts or
aspects of the new architecture we can identify with. For instance, the festivic character of
Rossi's teatro del mondo enabled its association with the teatri of the Venetian tradition.

As a consequence, its centrality, its relations to the lagoon and its temporal character

134 -
emerged all out of its original symbolism as a festivic structure. The distinction between
structural, symbolic and temporal features, attempted here does not suggest a specific order
in our experience and interpretation of new architecture. It is only a convenient way of
making sense of our experience of the built environment.

All parts and aspects of architecture pertain to the structural, symbolic and temporal
designation we suggested, although in varying degrees of complexity. Another point that
should be made here is that different parts and aspects of new architecture are experienced
in a different way. A facade of a building, the view of a building we get from a narrow
street, some part of it which might catch our attention, are aspects that can be perceived
simultaneously. The plan of a building or its volumetric configuration have to be conceived
rather from a piece-meal, or sequential, perception of them.

Materials, geometric formulation, the texture and the structure of the urban fabric, to
the extent that they convey aspects or characteristics of the context, are some structural
features that precondition the interpretation of the new. On the symbolic level we, collec¬
tively, identify the symbolic mediation of forms, patterns, materials in relation to the reality
of the context. Symbolic aspects of a setting, established through socio-cultural life, condi¬
tion understanding of the symbolic dimension of novelties. As Ricoeur defines it, following
Cassirer, symbolic forms are cultural processes that articulate experience. So, symbolic
forms are not explicitly symbolic but rather enhance symbolic mediation (33). Finally
symbolic articulation bears more precise temporal elements from which the capacity of
contextual dimensions to be narrated and perhaps the need to narrate them comes from our

understanding of them.

By symbolic mediation we mean the ability of things to refer to something else out¬
side themselves. In this sense everything can enhance symbolic mediation, since everything
relates to something beyond itself, by virtue of our conceptualization of things. Gadamer
makes this point clear by arguing that:

In the last analysis, Goethe's statement "everything is a symbol", is the most

comprehensive formulation of the hermeneutical idea. It means that everything
points to another thing. This "everything" is not an assertion about each being,
indicating what it is, but an assertion as to how it encounters man's understand¬
ing. (34)

Symbolic mediation conceived in this sense, relates directly to the intevpretability of

architecture.

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 In Chapter Six, the constituent elements - conceived as structural features - of the
man-made environment, such as the materials, the construction techniques, the formal

configuration and so forth, will be seen interrelated within a temporal dialectical structure.
In discussing both the context and new architecture in it, in terms of parts and entities that
we designate and experience, their structural features, their symbolic dimension and their
place in the process of development for a given setting will be assessed. Interpretation
thus can relate to the human experience of continuity in the man-made environment, that
is, experiencing a given setting as a narrative.

Evaluation of new architecture occurs when all the constituent elements of new archi¬

tecture, that is, the structural aspects we can designate, their symbolic significance and their
ability to be narrated in our experience of new architecture in an old setting, are seen
within a temporal dialectical structure, on the basis of which their interrelation with con¬

textual characteristics and their significance for the life of a particular context is assessed.

5. 4. 2. DESIGNATION OF DIALECTICAL LEVELS

IN THE INTERPRETATION OF ARCHITECTURE

Preunderstanding of a setting in relation to new architecture in it, already built to be

evaluated or about to be built to be assessed and guided, always determines to some degree
the designation of levels upon which interpretation will evolve. This designation not only
determines but is also to be tested in interpretation through the polarities introduced in
Chapter Four.

Preunderstanding of the Greek vernacular architecture, the Classical architecture, the

Attic landscape, the climate and the Greek culture contribute to the levels we examine in
Chapter Six. As we come to understand a plot by certain events or instances we happen to
identify with, we similarly approach architecture and interpret it through some characteris¬
tics relating to our previous knowledge, previous experience, state of mind we happen to
be in or the perceptual entities we happen to encounter. Each entity that we can designate,
can be then considered at many levels of symbolic reference in its context. A particular
pattern of stones in Pikionis' paths, for instance, can be taken as an entity, "a structural
unit" in Ricoeur's terminology (fig. 6.69,70). This pattern associates with the Cyclopean
wall surrounding the Acropolis rock in the Bronze Age, the archaic altars, the pre-Classical
structures or even to vernacular buildings.

The parts or aspects of new architecture that can be considered as entities may be
specific formations, the materials used or even some particular view of a new building.
Whatever has been recognised or designated as an entity, can then be seen operating within

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the symbolic and temporal realm in association with its context. The ability of an entity to
sustain a contextually relevant interpretation process measures its legitimacy as an aspect to

be assessed in relating new and old architecture.

All levels of interpretation that can ensue in assessing relations between new and old
architecture, can be seen through the polarities introduced in Chapter Four. Synchronic and
diachronic aspects of relating new to old architecture address the history of a setting as a
meaningful narrative. Unity and diversity aspects of relating new to old architecture pertain
to the identity and the particularity of a setting. Constructive and destructive aspects of
relating new to old architecture evaluate the development of a given setting. Temporary
and permanent aspects of relating new to old architecture unveils the different temporalities
of various aspects which characterize a setting and assesses permanence and change in its
identity. Interpretation thus occurs as a series of stages of preunderstanding and the con¬
tinuous transformation of these preunderstandings at several levels. The contextual image is
transformed and renovated, while transformation is conditioned and partially determined by
the context. In fact, the case studies in Chapter Six will be interpreted within these polari¬
ties.

These polarities are based on the assumptions that: 1. What used to be a setting in the
past is also, to a certain degree, part of the present in that setting. 2. The same context
which was manifested in a diversity of forms throughout its history today is used and inter¬
preted in a new way and needs a contemporary expression. 3. We construct the contem¬
porary expression of a setting by destructing some aspects that have been there before. 4.
Permanent qualities in a setting, or whatever is considered to be so, find their way to the
present and coexist with less permanent ones.

So, in our inteipretation of the relation between new and old architecture, we have to
accept our preunderstanding, which is contextually conditioned, and see how it operates
within our interpretation process. In this sense it is rather inadequate to interpret the man-
made environment in terms of styles, historical periods, certain constitutional buildings or
any selectively imposed historical discretization. History is continuous, however inevitable
and real is our need to designate and interpret it in phases.

Architecture is in continuous development and unavoidably meaningful - although not

in the same sense for every one - in an everyday basis for its social context. This is not to
subscribe to some sort of populistic approach which will reduce architecture to ready made
meanings; it is rather postulated that architecture must be meaningful in a multiplicity of
levels in order to cope with the diversity of human experience it is going under.

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5. 5. DIALECTICAL HERMENEUTICS AS A METHOD OF

CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATION

We have argued so far that contemporary architectonic interventions, in order to

relate to existing historic settings, have to communicate with them in a diversity of inter¬
pretative levels.

In Chapter Four we introduced the dialectic filters of synchronicity/diachronicity,

unity/diversity, constructive/destructive and ephemeral/permanent, to assess in what way
new and old architecture can be interrelated at the diverse levels we discussed so far. In

this part we will try to formulate out of Gadamer's ontological hermeneutics and Ricoeur's
theoretical investigation of the narrative, some notes towards a dialectical hermeneutics.

Dialectics provides a useful structuring method for the interpretation process without
impairing its continuity. So, despite the designation of levels of understanding in interpret¬
ing and evaluating new architecture in old settings, these levels are here considered as only
a conceptual approximation to an otherwise unanalysable continuous process. Dialectics is
capable of acknowledging opposing aspects of architectural change and of doing justice to
the wholistic nature of any architectural novelty, that is, its ability to be significant at
several levels of interpretation.

This study suggests the articulation of such a dialectical system able to encompass all
diverse interpretations under one process, which constitutes a framework for all possible
contextual interpretations to operate. It suggests a process, the generative potentiality of
which can reveal a comprehensive appreciation of the diverse interpretations, while interre¬
lating them as parts of it. The legitimacy of every interpretation can be rendered as such
through its potentiality to continue and generate the process, relating new architecture to an

existing setting in ever new ways of contextual significance. New and old architecture in a

historic setting have to be connected in a systematic way, if their lasting communication is

desired. It is through this interpretation process that new architecture is engaged in a con¬
tinuous and indefinite interaction with the existing setting. Such an interaction is a prere¬

quisite for new architecture attempting to be a creative intervention in its context.

The notions of imitation and contrast constitute the tools of a dialectic interpretation

based on the polarities introduced in Chapter Four. This interpretation operates at several
levels, generated through the consideration of several aspects of new architecture and its

setting. In proposing such a system we aim at a comprehensive interrelation between old

and new.

Implicit to the above consideration is the belief that dialogue is characterised by an

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intrinsic creativity compared to rhetorics based on formal logic. Formal logic cannot accept
a value and its opposite as equally important. Dialectics instead is based on the existence
of opposing principles and values. If there is a need for both antithetical values, if they are

acknowledged as equally important, only then dialectics of the opposites can be considered
as a creative method. It was the detection and the appropriation of antithetical, yet equally
important to human settings, environmental spatio-temporal qualities, that stimulated such a

methodological choice in this study.

Once dialogue is established between new and old architecture, it is then able to build
up values which cannot otherwise exist on either of the opposites that are engaged in
interaction. It is this sort of surfeit of value, which renders the dialectics of the opposites a
creative process. The more the dialogue between them proceeds, the more interrelated they
become, the more open and familiar to each other. Architectonic intervention and existing
setting thus, through their mutual interaction legitimize, understand and illuminate one

another. Through this dialectic relationship new architecture acquires contextual identity
and subsequently changes the setting, where it is being grafted into, in a contextual way.

The context although characterized by identity and difference in itself as we argued in

Chapter Three, nevertheless presents an oneness, a particular to it identity in relation to
any other setting. This oneness characterizes any entity we happen to designate in our

attempt to relate old and new architecture. Dialectics as a method of inquiry respects and
does justice to this double-sided nature of identity.

A new building, for instance, endorses the identity of the setting, where it is grafted
into, in two ways; by imitating its context in what is lasting and true, and by differing from
it in what is distinctly new and contemporary. For this reason, in this study, dialectics
penetrates both: the tools (imitation and contrast) with which we assess relations between
new and old architecture, and the perspectives (the four polarities) through which we con¬

ceptualize the relations between old and new architecture at several levels.

What unites and renders legitimate the interaction of opposite spatio-temporal quali¬
ties is the potential of the existing setting as their common denominator. Opposition then
has to do with identity and difference in itself, the "self' being a setting in development.

Tradition and novelty interact dialectically having as a common basis for their dialec¬
tic opposition the "life" of the context, which needs them both in order to exist. The polari¬
ties suggested in Chapter Four, although abstract structures, nevertheless allow for an
adequate conceptualization of the interaction between new and old architecture, realized at
several levels.

139 -
 The "life" of a setting needs both the quality of being a sychronic object while being
part of a diachronic process, being one while being different every time, destroying while

constructing and remaining a permanent quality while changing. It constitutes the common

denominator and the power for the dialectics between new and old to operate. It constitutes
the "third term" for their dialectic interaction (35). The passage of time "makes" life possi¬
ble, ours and the objects' we want to be alive too, even if by ascribing to them a sort of
vitalism by virtue of human life. That is to say that a setting is alive only by virtue of the
life of the socio-cultural entity it accommodates.

Old and new characteristics interact dialectically at several levels. New parts of a
building interact with other parts of it, derived from its context. The unity of the building
itself is this time the third term for the opposition between new and old parts of it. At this
level new and old elements interact at a level different from that at which new architecture

and its context do. At this level a harmoniouscombination of new and contextual elements is

at stake, while at a higher level, new architecture as a whole is considered as the novel part
which has to establish a dialogue with the setting it is grafted into.

It is interesting to note here that we cannot ascribe dialectical opposition between, for
instance, the context of an existing setting as it was before the insertion of new architecture
and the context after the architectonic intervention. These entities are just successive in
time stages in the contextual process of development, distinct in time and as such there is
no third term for their possible interaction. They cannot coexist at any time in a given set¬
ting and for that reason their dialectical interaction is meaningless.

New and old architecture are antithetical aspects of the contextual entity and at every
level of their interaction, in our interpretation, the outcome of the their rivalry is ambigu¬
ous at indefinite levels of consideration. This ambiguity of positive ontological significance,
what Plato called aporia, is their potentiality to stimulate and sustain the interpretation pro¬
cess.

Aporia remains, because the creativity of a dialectic process does not lie at the
supremacy of one of the opposites towards a definite end. Its creativity lies rather in its
potentiality to sustain an interpretation process, which nevertheless creates values and
establishes associations between architectonic intervention and existing setting at every

level of interpretation. Interpretation thus is not expected to reveal a definite meaning in a

given context,but rather enter an interpretation process which reveals significant contextual
values, as it evolves. There is no hierarchy among the diverse interpretation levels, since
each one Is equally relevatory about both the setting and the intervention. Yet, some
meanings are in the nature of things and pertain to all contexts, while others characterize in

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particular a specific locality.

The existing spatio-temporal entity of a particular setting seems the best possible
frame of reference for such an interpretation process, even if this process is finally to
supersede contextual significance and reveal more general levels of significance. New
architecture may aspire to qualities relating to the nature of things, such as, for instance,
freedom, openness and permanence. But this aspiration will be an outcome of its engage¬
ment with the culture of the particular place in the context of which new architecture is
grafted. This is not to suggest that a localised culture is the only way leading to gen¬
eral aesthetic merits, but rather to show that contextual engagement does not exclude them.
Instead, through contextual reference new architecture expresses such general qualities in
its own way. The festivic quality, for instance, as a general quality that can be experienced
in many places, is addressed, in Rossi's teatro del mondo, through a Venetian filter, as we
will see in Chapter Six. Similarly, Pikionis in his landscaping of the Acropolis, addresses
the universality of a religious place, religiousness as a translocal quality, through the per¬

spectives of the Classical culture and the vernacular tradition.

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 CHAPTER SIX

THE DIALECTICS OF HERMENEUTIC EXPERIENCE IN TWO CONTEXTS

6. 1. NOTES CONCERNING THE INTERPRETATION OF

NEW ARCHITECTURE IN HISTORIC SETTINGS

We argued in Chapter Three that imitation/contrast dialectics describe the complex

web of relationships between an architectonic intervention and the context of the particular
setting into which the intervention is being grafted. In order to conceive the man-made
environment as a dynamic temporal process as well as a static spatial configuration, we
introduced in Chapter Four a dialectic conceptualization of the various manifestations of
time as experienced in the relations between new and old architecture.

In such an approach, even antithetical manifestations of time find their place as

equally needing to be acknowledged by new architecture. Some modes of interaction
between space and time such as, synchronic and diachronic, unitary and diverse, construc¬
tive and destructive, and ephemeral and permanent, were considered in dialectical pairs in
order to address the antithetical aspects of architectural change.

In Chapter Five we examined, with the aid of philosophical hermeneutics, how the
understanding of the whole guides the understanding of its parts and how from understand¬
ing the parts we are led back to the understanding of new whole. In other words we came
to show understanding as a cyclical process. The scale of the whole in interpreting new
architecture in a given setting is a varying one, because any architectural intervention in
that setting changes it in a different sense at several level of reference. An addition to a
historic building changes in a different sense the building, the street it belongs to, the set¬
ting and so forth. Knowledge of a given setting as what it has been, what it is at the
present and what it wants to be vis a vis pending new architecture in it, determines par¬

tially not only the parts and entities we, collectively, are going to designate, but essentially
the criteria for the interpretation and the evaluation of new architecture.

In this Chapter we will attempt to see, through a detailed examination of two case

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studies, how all the spatio-temporal polarities work together, how they are connected and
correlated through the interpretation-evaluation process in our attempt- as architects or

experiencers-to understand and evaluate novelties in historic settings. In other words, we

will examine how the conceptualization of time proposed in Chapter Four, relates to the
multiple layers of meaning in the man-made environment and the degree of their ack¬
nowledgement in changing it, as it has been discussed in Chapter Five.

Interpretations at different levels, dialectically related, are considered within a process

with which we, collectively get engaged. Conversely, this process is indefinite yet
significant in different ways for different people at different times. A dialectic process of
reading-interpretation is proposed rather than some definite interpretation, whether a
definite interpretation is to be the "mens auctoris", or any other specific one.

The physical characteristics of a new building and its surroundings are the most obvi¬
ous starting points towards assessing the relation between old and new in a given setting.
The materials, the construction techniques, the formal configuration, the volumetric and
planimetric articulation of both a historic setting and the new architecture in it, are some

physical characteristics. The knowledge and the previous experience of the particular set¬
ting will determine, to some degree, even the physical features that we, collectively, are to
designate in relating new architecture to it, not to mention the symbolic significance in con¬

textual terms of these physical features.

In Chapter Four we made the point that only an ideal experiencer, with full
knowledge of a setting and the socio-cultural process in it, can assess most adequately an

ideal relationship between new and old architecture. Yet, if new architecture aims at this
ideal state of harmonious co-existence with its surroundings at several levels, it should also
make sense for normal everyday experience. Thus, knowledge of the con¬

text at normal circumstances could be considered at any probable level, i.e. it could vary
from the knowledge we get by observing the spatial articulation of a new building and its
surrounding to the more complex forms of incorporating historical and specific socio-
cultural aspects in association with their spatial expression.

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6. 2. THE VENETIAN CONTEXT AS MANIFESTED

THROUGH ALDO ROSSI'S "TEATRO"

6. 2. 1. INTRODUCTION

In Chapter Three we provided a critical presentation of Aldo Rossi's theoretical

approach to architecture. Rossi throughout his writings and his works has been always
interested in a permanent typology of architecture. Criticism of his works has been often
solely focusseduptfthe nature of the typology he advocates. In this Chapter we will examine
not the legitimacy or the arbitrariness of the typology he uses, but the way he applies it
according to local characteristics in one case study, the teatro of Venice.

Irrespectively of the typological tools he uses, we will try to intepret his teatro on the
basis of its context at several levels of reference, i.e. its surrounding buildings, the adjacent
area and the canal, Venice as a whole and so forth. In other words, we will try to under¬
stand the way he uses his typology, the modifications and adaptations he makes according
to contextual characteristics of the place . his teatro is grafted into.

In his "Scientific Autobiography", Rossi provides in passim some fragmentary com¬

ments and reflections on Venice, which stimulated and informed his design of the teatro.
Occasional recurrence of Rossi's quotations in the following pages does not imply that
they can be taken as evidence for the understanding of his work. It only illuminates further
some points, which are present in his work nonetheless. In other words, in the following
we will refer to aspects of his work as they can be experienced by anyone.

6. 2. 2. STRUCTURAL FEATURES - A FIRST DESCRIPTIVE READING

On November 11th 1979, Aldo Rossi's floating teatro Veneziano or teatro del

mondo, emerged within the Venetian lagoon for the first time on the occasion of the Bien-
nale. Built in the Fusina shipyards, it was brought out to the Venetian context of buildings,
Venetians and tourists as a completed edifice and anchored at the punta della dogana, in
front of St Mark's piazza and the Doge's palace (Fig. 6, 1).

The skeleton of the edifice, made of stee£ scaffolding tubes, was fixed upon a pair of
steeB beams on a oblong barge. The outside surface and partly the inside was clad with per¬
pendicular timber plates (Figs 6. 2-5).

The barge was the floating foundation upon which the whole edifice was constructed.
An enclosed parallelepiped 9.5m long and wide and 11m high constituted the main volume,
the central space of the teatro. Above a height of 1 lm the main volume was transformed

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into an octahedral drum 6m high, which was surmounted by an octagonal pyramid (Fig. 6.
6).

The centrality of the teatro was further emphasized above the pyramid by a metallic
axis, which pierced a sphere and backed a metallic triangular flag at its final point. The
whole edifice followed a tripartite articulation, i.e.the main parallelepiped volume, the
octahedral drum, and the octagonal roof and it was completed with two staircase terraced
blocks 13m high, which contributed further to the centrality of the edifice (Fig. 6. 7-9). A
terrace at the height of 1 lm provided a panoramic view. A blue painted strip looked like a
kind of ballustra and went round the terrace. A similar blue strip at the top side of the
drum emphasized further the centrality of the edifice and mediated between the metallic
colour of the roof and the yellow of the timber claddmgflgs 6. 10-12). The main entrance
provided access to the stage, while the lateral ones gave access, through the staircases, to
the gallery (Figs 6. 13-14). All three entrances were facing the place in front of the punta
della dogana, the old customs office (Fig. 6. 15).

The central hall, the interior of the main volume, provided two tiers of seating, set
opposite each other on each side as people passed through the main entrance andlooKedcut
through the oppositely sited window opening, leaving the space in between for acting.
Above, hanging, there were two perimetric galleries, while at the terrace level a third one ,

of octagonal shape, completed the auditorium and communicated with the terrace through
eight doors, each one beneath a window on each side of the drum (Figs 6. 16-18).

From within the teatro, people had a view of the nearby floating boats and barges,
while they were being observed from outside as part of the theatre and from within as

actors of an ongoing play.

6. 2. 3. SYMBOLIC DIMENSIONS, OR ASSOCIATING THE "TEATRO"

WITH THE VENETIAN CONTEXT

The teatro del mondo or teatro Veneziano, as it was called by its designer Aldo
Rossi, first appeared coming from the lagoon pulled by a tug- boat (Fig. 6. 19). Floating

among barges and gondolas and superimposing its mobile configuration on the townscape,
the teatro constituted yet another unexpected scene for the Venetian context. Its image,
ambiguous and elusive as it appeared from the distant part of the lagoon, started to gen¬
erate associations to its immediate context even before it was clearly visible. First of all, by
the way it entered the Venetian context it commemorated once more the festivic character
of Venice. Yet another carnival, yet another ritual was on (Fig. 6. 20).

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 The already known, the familiar tug-boat, introduced something new, a new object for
the Venetian context, yet in a familiar manner. Everything had been sometime new in Ven¬
ice and everything had come from the sea. Gold, building materials, new objects, ideas
and whole civilizations came from the sea. That very lagoon had witnessed throughout its
history the fusion between East and West, and the Venetian urban tissue manifests elo¬
quently this multiplicity and diversity of styles, ideas and civilizations.

Anchored in front of the piazza san Marco and the Doges palace, but responding to
the fluctuations of the lagoon, Rossi's teatro appeared as a natural extension of the land
(Fig. 6. 1). The centrality of the main volume the drum and its roof, reinforced further
from the aisle-like side staircase blocks, referred immediately to the centralized Renais¬
sance, Byzantine and Baroque temples, which were scattered in the surrounding land (Fig.
6. 21). Although of a temporary character, it illuminated the hidden order of an already
familiar setting. Its octagonal roof resembled an abstraction of the existing roofing sys¬
tems. It addressed and summarized at the same time their diversity.

Imaginary unfolding of the drum and the roof could allude to the Doges' palace,
which is surmounted by flat triangular vertices, while frontal view of the roof alludes to the
pediments of the Palladian Neoclassical churches in the vicinity of the teatro. Were the
roof of the teatro hemispheric or terraced, it would lose the multiplicity of interconnected
associations.

Observed from the land, the octagonal cupola also associated with the rectangular
pyramid of the bell-tower in piazza San Marco and offered a geometrical abstraction of the
nearby cupolas. It went as far as to encompass the towers of the mediaeval Venetian wall,
the Romanesque bell towers and the whole Italian tradition of hill castles (Fig. 6. 22).
Starting from the immediate surrounding context of the teatro, where it got and deposited
meaning, it extended its symbolic range to more comprehensive contexts, i.e. the whole
Venetian city, Italian coasts, Italian hill towns, Italy, the mediterranean world. Even if it
were a novelty, it immediately became recognisable, familiar, communicative and meaning¬
ful. It illuminated its context from a new perspective and rendered it meaningful in a new
way (Figs 6. 23-24).

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6. 2. 4. ATTEMPTING A DIALECTICAL INTERPRETATION

6. 2. 4. 1. INTRODUCTION

So far we have exposed some guidelines along which a "normal", subjective interpre¬
tation should evolve. The material used for the construction of the teatro, its formal

configuration, its volumetric articulation, its function and the symbolism of all these, were

some of the most obvious levels of reference in intepreting the teatro in relation to Venice
and vice versa. In the following we will attempt to provide a dialectical framework upon
which the relation of Rossi's teatro to Venice can be assessed. This framework is neces¬

sarily a multi-layered one in order to encompass the diversity of levels on which new and
old can be associated.

In Chapter Five we argued that the degree of comprehensiveness that such a dialectic
intevpretative schema can attain would be adopted in this study as the most reliable criterion
for assessing the degree of integration between new and old. Yet, a comprehensive interre¬
lation between new and old architecture can only be an abstraction. In reality there is
always a hierarchy within which some aspects of a setting or of the new architecture in it
become finally more important than others in expressing the identity of that setting. What
aspect is more important than others and in what sense varies not only for different settings
but also for different times we come to intepret them. Along these lines we will attempt to
interpret Rossi's teatro.

6. 2. 4. 2. SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC ASPECTS OF VENICE

The materials used for the construction of the teatro were wood and metal. The

timber cladding, which covered the exterior and partly the interior, was a clear reminiscence
of the old wooden bridges of the Venetian lagoon and the timber constructions upon it
Wood had been for centuries the main building material to support the foundations of most
buildings. The metal cladding of teatro's roof related to all the bronze and golden plated
Byzantine and Renaissance domes. The scaffold materials used to support the whole struc¬
ture, gave to it a festive quality. The barge upon which the whole edifice was welded had
been long associated with the carriers of everyday commodities in Venice.

The scaffold iron tubes and the timber plating of Rossi's teatro facilitated from the
first moment its reading as a novelty belonging to the present. Like a circus tent on the vil¬
lage green, it emitted the freshness of a new edifice. Destined to last only for a while, the
materials and the technique used for its construction revealed its character as a festivic
building, which claimed only a temporary value. In using materials with an anti-

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monumental character, Rossi claimed a clear relevance to the present Yet, even in terms of
materials the teatro dwelled near its sources and its context. Bridges, ships,the poles which
support the foundations of most Venetian building, were all made of wood. Rossi's teatro
was just another festive machine joining its predecessors in a diachronic festival. The
teatro gained roots within the Venetian tradition, while in its appearance Venice gained a
current image.

A most obvious characteristic of the teatro was the centrality of its spatial organiza¬
tion. The amphitheatre and the galleries are organized around a central open space, which
soared to a pointed roof. The lateral staircase blocks reinforced further the character of a

closed and self contained central teatro with a centre.

As a new object Rossi's teatro is a whole world in itself. Its austere geometric con¬
tour and its clear articulation of volumes prescribed its definite limits in relation to its con¬

text. Anchored near the land, it provided a link with the existing Venetian setting. Other¬
wise, it offers a stage cabable of being a world in itself. It represented what the French

philosopher Michel Foucault has described as allotopia, a place which physically is some¬

where, yet it is a complete world in itself. Rossi's teatro offered a unique place, from
where Venice could be seen in a new way: the whole city as a floating stage where the
play of life is being continuously played .

The centrality of the Renaissance Utopias could also come to mind as a most relevant
precursor. Leonardo da Vinci's ideal temple, the mediaeval towns of northern Italy and the
round edifices of the Venetian carnivals could be taken to articulate a continuous chain,

where Rossi's teatro could find its place and justify its significance. The teatro could
equally belong to the present and to the long Venetian tradition. It was a contemporary
focal point and the converging point of all the teatri of the past.

Similar links with the Venetian past could be established, if an interpretation of its
function was attempted. Rossi's teatro as a temporary theatre on a festivic occasion, could
stand a dialectical interpretation, i.e. as a functional building of the present and as a present

repercussion of the festivic constructions of the past.

Rossi, in his Scientific Autobiography suggests that even the square windows with
the crossed mullions can be considered as an aspect of the teatro which related to the
Venetian context. Some other aspects of the teatro also claimed their relevance to an
interpretation aiming at assessing its synchronic and diachronic characteristics. Some of
them derived from the symbolic significance of previously discussed levels of reference.
For instance, the centrality of the teatro related to such dialectical pairs as inside/outside,
complete/incomplete and ordered/disordered in relation to the Venetian tradition. The

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construction technique of the teatro and its materials could also lead to more comprehen¬
sive ♦' polarities relating to the historical depth of the Venetian context and the
contemporary significance of the teatro.

The change that Rossi's teatro had inferred upon the Venetian context could also be
interpreted along the same dialectical lines. Rossi's teatro was a symbolic building. It was

a representation of a building rather than a building itself. Abstraction of past typologies,

memories of the vernacular tradition of northern Italy and images of the Venetian
landscape could be taken as some symbolic references. Rossi's teatro represented, summar¬
ized and critically stood within the Venetian context in its own way. It was a multi¬
purpose, symbolic and ambivalent structure that introduced to its context the essence of the
whole city; the elusive character of architecture and the fragile purity of architectural
styles. It addressed the architecture of Venice as a collage of typologies, forms, materials
and building techniques. It seemed to be a recomposition made from a diversity of
memories. It related more to the past as a whole rather than any particular part of it. It
contrasted to the specific morphology of the surrounding buildings in order to catch the
mode of their coexistence. It abandoned any stylistic imitation in order to imitate the more
essential characteristics of the Venetian multiplicity and formal diversity. It brought to the
surface a latent typology, fictional and abstract as much as congenial to its context. It
clearly expressed a critical standpoint instead of a superimposition strategy. It did not offer
any new element to the already existing formal diversity, but a new synthesis of whatever
had been there as a form, as a symbolic image or as a distant memory. Rossi's teatro was

a novelty which derived from its context, yet going beyond the existing context in order to
illuminate it in a contemporary way. Something new is proposed, yet it surely appears to
be Venetian. Venice could be seen differently after the introduction of the teatro in her
context. A different Venice, yet still the same Venice. In terms of the conceptualization

proposed in this study, Venice seemed to preserve its continuity, while being grafted with a
novelty. Whatever aspect of the theatre we could come to intepret, we would realize that
the diverse aspects of the teatro manifest a congeniality to its context, while critically reap-
propriating it.

A critical appraisal of what is still a valid characteristic of Venice to be imitated by

new architecture in it and what is not pressuposes a hierarchy and an evaluation of the pro¬
as

perties of the Venetian context. Some properties of the past still consistjintegral parts of
the Venetian identity; others less so, while others are a matter of the past only. The festivic
character of Venice is still an alive characteristic of the most celebrated city. On the con¬

trary, copying a floating theatre of the past for today would be a repetitive act. In Rossi's
teatro we realize the fact that whatever characteristics it intends to perpetuate, it must do
so at the expense of others, which necessarily have to be considered as less important or

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irrelevant to the present.

The extrovert character of the Venetian carnivals were constrasted by the teatro's
introvert reflection of the Venetian reality. In order to emphasize the hermetic centrality of
this "utopia", Rossi clearly abandons any specific historical connotation. He abandons
monumental materials and monumental orders in order to address an archetypal simplicity,
much closer to the essence of Classicism than any reiteration of Classical themes. Rossi's
teatro in its lasting dialectical relationship with its context, equally imitates and contrasts to
its surroundings. It abolishes some aspects of Venice in order to render others intelligible.
After all, this destruction and creation process is exactly the relation between the Venetian
land and the lagoon. Teatro stands at the threshold where land and lagoon claim each
other.

6. 2. 4. 3. TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT PROPERTIES OF VENICE

The teatro not only stood at the threshold between land and sea, but it had a thres¬
hold existence too. It represented the permanence of a diachronic typology, while floating
in the lagoon, and it was a temporary edifice while addressing the permanent characteristics
of Venice. It managed to sustain, in our intepretation of it vis a vis the Venetian context,
an active dialectics between what is temporary and what is permanent in it. This dialectics
in particular has a specific importance for the Venetian context.

Venice had always had a fragile life at the threshold between the land and the lagoon.
The lagoon brought to Venice everything which was then solidified in the land. The per¬
manence of the land and the ephemerality of the lagoon had always been the antipodes, the
polarities in between which Venice was kept alive and thriving. The monumental build¬
ing in the land expressed what Venice had achieved, while the lagoon kept changing Ven¬
ice, always challenging her monuments and her whole existence.

Observed from the lagoon, the rough outline of the teatro, appears to be added to
what is already there on land. The world of the lagoon seems to have been solidified in a

single structure. Although it matches the Venetian context, it nevertheless represents a

different kind of structure. In juxtaposition to all the other buildings, it did not follow the
piecemeal in situ construction, which we encounter in everyday life. It came from nowhere
going to nowhere, but anchored for several months somewhere, in Venice. Appearing in a
completed form, it commemorated the carnivals of Venice, when several floating construc¬
tions appeared for a short period of time. Particularly, its appearance as a completed con¬
struction and the ephemeral, the temporariness of its existence, associates with all the
Italian tradition of the 16th century teatri mundi.

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 Far from representing any particular of the Renaissance teatri, Rossi's teatro

represented their true succesor by constituting, as its predecessors did, 'the marriage of
utopia-the globality of the experience promised by a central space-to the phenomenal, the
relative, the transient, embodied by the provisional character of the stage machine'. Its
austere geometry, its absolute simplicity and abstraction, endows it with a metaphy¬
sical quality. Rossi's teatro finds itself at the threshold of existence. It exists as the spirit
of the lagoon, as the spirit of Venice and, at the same time, it does not exist in that it does
not finally take a profane contemporary form. His minimal construction implies the oppo¬
site of the actual, bustling Venetian life.

Anchored at the threshold, where land meets the lagoon, the teatro renders explicit
the double face of Venice, that of the permanent, immobile buildings, and the other of the
mobile, floating world of the lagoon. These two faces of Venice, like the double face of

Janus, oppose and complement one another. It is this dialectic interaction, which causes the
immobile world of the Venetian land to become subject to change and the mobile world of
the lagoon (the barges, the boats and the gondolas) to be considered as permanent through
this kind of perpetuation of movement and change. The lagoon, through time, influences
the land world and the land world renders legitimate and permanent the fluctuating world
of the lagoon. And it is this very spatial configuration of the teatro, which indicates such
a reading concerning the dialectical relationships between what is permanent and what is
changeable, between qualities of long duration and ephemeral ones, what is stable and what
is mobile.

The main volume of the teatro appears stable, permanent and horizontal in its mas-

siveness, while the few square windows contribute further to its compact character. In con¬
trast, the drum facets due to the unavoidable perspective in which they appear v , : , .

tend to a rather elusive round movement and an upward rise expressing a latent dynam¬
ism. The round movement of the drum makes possible the transition to the next facade of
the edifice, in which the same "T" motif appears raised, elusive and subject to change this
time. The side blocks, initially stable and permanent, start fluctuating in tune with the
lagoon's rhythm, as people moved round. What exists as a hint in the one side, appears as
the prevailing order in the next side providing alternatively stability amid change and
change amid stability and interrelating the various parts between themselves as well as to a
whole.

The teatro del mondo, the theatre of the world, represents through its fluctuations on
the lagoon, all the dramatic character of Venice. The lagoon seems to be the source of fife
for Venice and its death at the same time, and the permanence of its temporary nature, or
the temporary permanence of the teatro, refers directly to the Venetian drama.

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 A theatre in its widest sense is, perhaps, what all Venice is about. Every building is a

stage setting of a theatrical performance and a whole world in itself, while at the same time
it constitutes a part of a more comprehensive theatrical world, the world of Venice.

And it is so, not only because of the fascinating juxtaposition of all the diverse spa¬
tial configurations which constitute the setting, but also because of the people, Venetians
and tourists, walking around, observing the balconies around and being observed by the
people on these balconies, who happened to be there and who will come down to the
piazza a minute later. Rossi's teatro represents in an abstract sense this kind of living
everyday Venetian theatre.

The balconies become galleries for the teatro and the piazzas become the perfor¬
mance place, the orchestra. A whole world, outwardly expressed and unfolded, is here
reconstructed in a reversed, involuted and condensed form. The continous play between

walking and wandering people, is here kept alive in the interior of the teatro, where gal¬
leries, staircases and mutual observation contribute to the theatricality of the contextual
reference, the world outside the teatro, which is visible from the all round window open¬

ings. The two side staircase blocks emphasize the centrality of the main volume, which is
further reinforced by the two succeeding in height blue strips, which in turn culminate to
the natural blue of the sky, reflected on the metallic roof. There is an interplay between the
blue of the sky and the blue painted strips of the teatro. At the level of the upper gallery,
what seems painted blue to the outside observer, is a view of the Venetian sky, the nega¬
tive of the Venetian skyline, which the teatro dweller confronts.

Teatro del mondo imitates in a creative manner and renders explicit the basic charac¬
teristics of the immediate as well as the most comprehensive context, and at the same time
it is a complementary contrast to what it refers to and associates with.

Whatever our hypothetical narrative about the teatro and its context would be -and it
will be such a narrative, different for every observer and interpreter, in an attempt to
understand it -
by observing and interpreting it, our image about Venice will be reinforced
and justified rather than collapsed, as we will keep walking around Venice, connecting the
image of the teatro with the context of Venetian space and life. What exists as a clue or a
hint in the teatro, finds its full justification and legitimization in every part of Venice we
encounter.

Additional information about the history of Venice, her folklore, her festivals, the arts
and the everyday life throughout history, which form an inseparable complementary part of
what exists in built form and fabric and which we get somehow, as well as new images of
the built environment, clarifies the first image and renders explicit facets of Venice which

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are diffused everywhere. According to our knowledge of Venice, the image of the teatro,
keeps triggering associations and leads to a lasting relationship with its context.

6. 2. 4, 4. THE DISCUSSED DIALECTICAL LEVELS OF INTERPRETATION

AS ONE PROCESS

Venice has been chosen as a dinstictive example for the articulation of our theory,
because it represents a context 'par excellence' for the evaluation of any kind of architec¬
tonic intervention and for the measurement of the adequacy of contemporary architecture.
The peculiarity of the Venetian environment represents in exaggeration the whole problem
of architectural development today i.e. if we have to build in old settings, what to build
and how to build. Venice is for most the city of dreams and of nostalgia, the Venice of
Byron, Ruskin, Shelley or Proust, an almost mythical environment. But at the same time
Venice is an alive city like any other and resists the r^nous fascination of the Romantics.
Venice represents, perhaps more than any other setting, the dilemma of being preserved as
it is, or being renovated.

A consideration of Venice as yet another place to build, as the modernists would

have thought possible, could be disastrous for her unique character. But, nevertheless,
keeping Venice as she is without any renewal without any renovation to make her livable,
means an equally disastrous decision. A city is spatial configuration as well human
content and in either case of the above we lose one of them. What resolves this dilemma,

or rather renders it a false one, is a renewal in the "Venetian way". New architecture can

find the real, every time, Venice to associate with and "anchor" at What is necessary is an

association in a wholistic sense incorporating all the locally existing values and establishing
a relationship in all possible levels. The creation of new architecture in an old setting can

render explicit latent values, not less important than spatial forms and patterns suggested
by any morphological analysis. According to Eugenio Montale:

A city is a secret matrix of events and situations, the rather metaphysical site,
whether geographical or geometric, of encounters that a different scenario would
change and without loss of significance. ( Cited in: Also Rossi, The architecture
of the City)

Aldo Rossi with his teatro attempts, rather successfully, to provide a solution to the
above stated problem. We are not going to discuss here his method, his typology, but only
how he applies it to build in a particular context and particularly to the Venetian context.
Rossi is using geometrical pezzi e parti, to articulate a language of abstract forms. The
only thing we can criticize is the manipulation and use of this language according to the
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context it refers to. Far from comparing the teatro with his autobiography of statements
and projects, we have to interprete it only in terms of its performance in the Venetian con¬

text.

What measures and evaluates his typology and its application is the evaluation of his
solution according to the problem. It is this kind of criticism we have applied so far to
Rossi's typology in our attempt to interpret his teatro, far from any consideration concern¬
ing other projects of the same architect, associations within the architectural profession, or
criticism of a theory in vacuum. The teatro may in the end be associated with values and
references not of the particular context, but this can only ensue because of a contextually
integrated inteipretation.

Teatro del mondo, through its contemporaneity and its presence in St Marc's basin
addresses all the ephemeral structures of the lagoon, the boats which float around, the gon¬
dolas and their kiosks and furthermore by being so acquires temporal depth commemorat¬
ing the teatri of the 16th century (Figs 6. 25-26). It is not round and transparent and it
does not have caryatides, but nevertheless it constitutes the teatro of today. Through its
contemporaneity,acquires temporal depth, triggering associations with past 'contemporary'
structures and through its diachronic examination1! acquires contemporaneity, by being
different.

It is cultural memory, which anchors it to the past events of Venice, and by being yet
another event itself extends its temporal dimensions from its temporal depth to contem¬
poraneity and even to future memory, our considerations of how it will be remembered in
the future, acquiring temporal extension. : In the same way it relates to the Venetian
churches through its central volumetric articulation and its cupola, or the Venetian houses
through its painted blue window cornices, resembling the stone cornices of the old Vene¬
tian houses and the iron bars, or to the Venetian theatrical character by constituting another
focal point, another stage machine, rendering solid the threshold between the two coexist¬
ing worlds of the Venetian context.

Four centuries after the appearence of the last teatro mundi, Rossi's teatro renders
vivid a temporal gap as far as the built manifestation is concerned, but nevertheless estab¬
lishes a unity and is 'sincere' to the memory of the teatri, which never ceased to exist. It
provides a complementary contrast, from the temporal point of view. As far as the particu¬
lar building is concerned, it contrasts to all the group of teatri and in relation to the con¬
temporary context of Venice it is something different from it creating a meaningful diver¬

sity in Venifian history. By 'catching' the common thread, the genius loci of Venice, it
appears as familiar and expected, while, as a true monument, it appears as a spatial

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discontinuity to redeem time; it marts a novelty and redirects the process of development
in Venice.

The destructive face of time, which devours the foundations of Venice, the materials,

the whole built fabric, seems to compensate with the offspring of a new edifice. Time com¬

pensates for its destructive force by constructing as well. And the Venetian lagoon, the
danger for Venice, which is devouring her gradually, suddenly creates a new edifice as if
by reconstructing the already devoured part of the diachronic Venetian body (Fig. 6. 27).

The teatro is loaded with an ambiguity. Its closed, hermetic and highly abstracted
spatial configuration deny its transitory and ephemeral nature. It relates the fixed and
closed to themselves,? Palladian built statements and to the numerous mannerist capricci. It
'catches' not only the ephemeral spirit , as a floating structure, but nevertheless 'catches'
also the permanence of the recurrence of such events. Ids a monument to all the events. It
achieves its monumentality through its temporariness, exactly as recurring rituals and fes¬
tivals acquire their permanence through their recurrence.

After considering how it achieves its anchorage to the Venetian context it is time to
examine the changewhich is inferred upon the context after the introduction of a new

'object'. The teatro creates a contrast to the existing context and this contrast is a neces¬
sary one in order to imitate the process which created cumulatively whatever constitutes
the context. Venice changed with the insertion of the new edifice but nevertheless remained
the same. Teatro as a sensitive and sincere response matches the context and adds to it
while transforming it. Through its spatial configuration and potential symbolism it goes
beyond its ephemeral state of being and becomes a legitimate image of and for Venice.

No possible interpretation can ever be so ambitious as to aim at revealing the fact of

a work of art. Any reading cannot pretend to be an exhaustive one. What is of importance
here is the ability of the architectonic intervention, as a work of art, to acquire several
levels of interpretation, its ability to resist any complete and exhaustive reading, leaving the
observer-interpreter in the tertium quid, i.e. to the third state between two dialectic oppo-
sites - to whatever level these opposites interact and complement one-another - , to a state
of potential and powerful ambiguity, ever pregnant with yet another meaning.

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6. 3. RESPONDING TO THE CLASSICAL IDEAL:

PIKIONIS' ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTION TO THE CONTEXT OF

THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS

6. 3. 1. INTRODUCTION

Walking upon this land, our heart rejoices like the child's first joy in our move¬

ment within the space of creation, this successive destruction and redemption of
our balance that is walking. It rejoices in the advance of our body upon this
sculptured band that is the ground. And our spirit is delighted by the infinite
combinations of the three dimensions of space that fall in with and change
around us in every step of ours, and can be altered even by the passage of a
cloud in the sky. We pass by this rock, the trunk of this tree or under its crested
leafage. We ascend and descend along with the land upon its convexities, its
hillocks, its mountains or deep in its valleys. We enjoy the flat stretch of the
plain, we measure earth with the labour of our body. This solitary path is
infinitely superior to the city's highways because in every undulation of it, in its
turns, in the infinite alterations of spatial perspective it presents, it teaches us
the divine hypostasis of individuality which is subordinated to the harmony of
the whole ... We study the spirit that each place yields ... Here the natural
forces, the geometry of the earth, the quality of light and the ether define this

place as a cradle of civilization ... Light created this cosmos. Light preserves
and procreates it... Walking upon this land, realm of the limestone and clay, I
saw the rock being transformed into architrave and red clay colouring the walls
of an imaginary cella.

The Greek architect Dimitris Pikionis wrote the above lines in his seminal article

"Sentimental Topography". In it, Pikionis expressed his most intimate and profound rela¬
tionship to the Attic landscape (Fig. 6. 28). Fifteen years later, in 1950, he was com¬
missioned for the improvement of the landscape around the Acropolis at Athens and the
nearby hills.

From 1950-1957 Pikionis in close collaboration with other architects, craftsmen and

students of architecture, landscaped the approaches to Acropolis and the Philopappou hill
providing the stem of a path network spreading to the greater green area which encom¬
passes the hills of Acropolis and Areopagos to its North-East part, and the hills of Philop-
papos, Pnika and Nimfon to its South-West (Fig. 6. 29). Near the place where all footpaths
from the southern hills converge, as one ascends the promenade to Philoppapou hill,

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Pikionis renovated St. Dimitris Loumbardiaris chapel and built a refreshment-place
environed by a landscaped precinct.

In what follows we will try to provide an experiential understanding of the whole

complex as an architectonic intervention in one of the most prestigious settings. In other
words, we will try to show how Pikionis' intervention manifests in architectural terms an

interpretation of the Classical spirit, dominant in the particular setting, and how by
responding to it, it acquires its own qualities for contemporary Athenian life.

6. 3. 2. EXPERIENCING THE CLASSICAL AND THE CONTEMPORARY:

A FIRST DESCRIPTIVE ENCOUNTER

There can be several ways in which Pikionis' intervention to the context of the acrop¬

olis can be experienced. People tend to use extensively the area, as it constitutes one of the
few green areas left to the overdeveloped contemporary megalopolis of Athens. Taking a
stroll round the hills, using a particular path as a shortcut on an everyday basis, or intend¬
ing to reach the Classical acropolis, are some ways of encountering and experiencing
Pikionis' work.

As we are following a limestone-paved path, we are gradually witnessing its transfor¬

mation into something particular. Subtlely ordered patterns emerge to the surface, while
marble is introduced amid other kinds of limestone and the paved surface starts to fluctuate
in resonance with the anomalies of the ground (Fig. 6. 30).

An olive tree pulls around it several limestone plates in a specific formation, a marble
bench occasionally flanks the loose edges of the path, steps are carefully carved out of a

slope and plated with marble, water conduits run along the fringes of the paths and merge
into the greater area (Figs 6. 31-34).

These stonepaths, while penetrating the landscape, present a particular relation¬

ship with it. Conscious or not we may be of the history of the place, we nonetheless feel a
unique relationship to the environing landscape as Pikionis' stonepaths start telling several
stories and triggering associations with their context.

The overall network of stonepaths is constructed in the most uncontentious way by

adopting long used footpaths instead of designing new ones. Footpaths used for millenia
are materialized in Pikionis' intervention acquiring an explicit identity. Paces of bygone
ages are petrified to form the contemporary paths. Part of the promenade ascending to the
acropolis hill is reinforced with concrete to provide suitable and enduring surface for vehi¬
cles, while the rest of the network is paved with several types of limestones.

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 The renovation of St. Dimitris Loumbardiaris church is a careful recreation. Conge¬
nial to the Byzantine spirit, the church in only partly rebuilt. The exterior surface is ela¬
borated with marble and brick fragments, reverberating familiar symbols of the Christian
religion. A simple narthex is added, while the stone paved precinct encom¬

passes its perimetrical stone benches.

The refreshment place is half indoors and half outdoors, the two parts interwoven; and
open to each other. It provides verandahs, pergolas, gates and small niches on the walls to
create an intimate space, while being in the open air. Timber constructions and stone arti¬
culated walls partly roofed with tiles form the main part of the building, while the rest of it
remains unroofed facilitating i stay in the open-air, of particular importance to Greek life
throughout the ages due mainly to the fair weather but also to the extrovert Greek character
(Figs 6. 35-36).

Experiencing Pikionis' intervention as a whole one gets the impression that despite all
the transformations along the way and the local adaptations, the whole network presents a
striking unity. The stonepaths, the small church, the refreshment place, the precinct and all
the particular places spread in the whole area, arenollmijbut instances of an entity, variations
of a theme which has to do with the particularity of the context.

There are several reasons for these thoughts as one experiences the place. It initially
appears as a fragmented order of stones, as the glimses of the Classical acropolis one can

get through the olive-trees' leafage, as one ascends on the acropolis hill or any of the

nearby ones. The texture of the walls, the geometry of the construction, but mainly a hid¬
den common spirit behind, experienced yet concealed to positive analysis, leave little doubt
that there is a common thread linking the diverse parts of the path network.

6. 3. 3. THE ATTIC LANDSCAPE AND ITS MATERIALS

One of the themes that one is continuously reminded of, while experiencing Pikionis'
stonepaths, is the particular identity of the Attic landscape. The omnipresence and predomi¬
nance of the limestone is one of its main characteristics. The Classical writer Xenophon

wrote:

Attica has a plentiful supply of stones from which are made the fairest temples
and altars and the more beautiful statues for the Gods. ( Wycherley)

Indeed one hardly fails to notice that the Attica basin has been exceptionally favoured,
with limestone. Massive limestone beds extend from Pentelikon mountain to Piraeus and

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158 -
further to the black limestone of Eleusis, flanked by Hymettos mountain. Pikionis in his
J?£0
intervention presents to us sort of micrography of the Attic landscape. Stones along the
paths emerge in the same way the acropolis rock emerged due to some geological process.

According to Greek mythology, it was this very rock that Goddess Athena struck and an
•the
olive tree appeared, symbol of peace. Alljhistory of Athens started with the Godess she
was named after (Fig. 6. 37).

Limestone formed the acropolis rock and provided the first shelters to neolithic dwell¬
ers. We can witness still today these caves on the north part of the rock. Caves, altars,
sanctuaries, offering niches on the rock's surface span millenia of human life and provided
shelter to Gods and humans long before the Classical times (Fig. 6. 38). It is as if the rich
limestone beds, latent underground the Attican landscape, suddenly were fused together to
form the Acropolis rock, an extreme manifestation of what otherwise is everywhere
around. During the Mycaenean ages this limestone rock provided the foundation for the
Kings' palaces and after these it witnessed the continuous presence of temples (Fig. 6. 39).

Pikionis uses grey limestone not in any specific pattern but rather as fragments of the
acropolis rock, or even partial appearances of the underlying material, which spreads
around the hills and then disappears in the foundation of the contemporary city. Pikionis
arranges stones of all sizes, shapes and colours as floating mats and shifts them accord¬
ingly, taking into consideration the particularity of the contextual landscape, to form dense
and loose parts. He leads the current somewhere or lets it free, responding to the situa¬
tional characteristics (Fig. 6. 40).

Pikionis uses every stone with the loving care and dexterity that an archaeologist
unearths fragile ruins and the result appears almost natural, as if Pikionis contribution was

only to unearth what was there. Yet, it is evident that it is a contemporary work. Pikionis'
intervention in its completeness and correspondense to contemporary needs and functions
cannot but belong to the present.

At the utilitarian level, for instance, the paths network bridge the gap between the car

dominated megalopolis and the steep rock hill of the acropolis. Inviting cars and coaches
up to a certain point by reinforcing the pavement properly, Pikionis avoids a superficial
polemics against the contemporary facility of the car, only to establish the merits of the
walk on a higher level (Figs 6. 41-42).

Pikionis' paths form currents of stones which flow around the hills sweeping in their
way the people walking on them. Sensitive to the presence even of the smallest bush or
olive-tree, they shift and adapt gently their flow, while enhancing it. This stone-stream
slows down at the precinct of the church and the area by the refreshment center. It

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stagnates for a while to continue its flow afterwords towards the nearby hills. The acropo¬
lis rock completes this metaphorical image. It can be the only possible source of these
streams which overflow to create ramps, steps, benches or even rising to articulate a

building (Fig. 6. 43 ).

Scattered amid the grey limestone paths that environ the acropolis and the nearby
hills, pieces of white marble appear gradually. White Pentelic marble, a kind of limestone

itself, in Pikionis' words "miraculously metamorphosed by titanic heat and pressure into its
characteristic crystalline structure", epitomises all sorts of limestones. Pure, white and
crystal-like clear.

Transparent opaqueness is not an oxymorous characterization for the Pentelic marble.

It describes it best since it allows sunlight to pass through only to keep it inside. It was in
fact this material, a piece of marble lying in the mud, that stimulated Pikionis to study the
Attic landscape. In the stonepaths around the acropolis he uses it in the same way, as a

jewel in the grey limestone context; emerging iy passim and waiting to be discovered (Fig.
6. 44.).

Pikionis spares the white marble for geometric patterns that are literally thrown in
front of our eyes, as we look down, while ascending to the hills. Somehow, marble pieces
are to their grey context, what Classical temples are to the rock. The same material, white
marble, was used for what was to epitomise Greek architecture i.e. the Parthenon and the
-itons.
other temples on the acropolis hill, substituting earlier timber, clay and porous structures.

The 'free flowing' grey limestones relate to the amorphous rock in the same way;
marble geometric patterns,emerging through the grey canvas, relate to the equally ordered
temples. What is needed for these relations to be attributed, is the human presence and par¬

ticipation in its physical and spiritual sense.

Speaking of materials we can also notice how Pikionis is able to use brick as well as
limestone. In the small church of Loumbardiaris, brick and stone are juxtaposed while par¬

ticipating in the overall synthesis (Fig. 6. 45). Mycaenean tiles, archaic and classical pot¬
tery, sun-dry clay as the basic material of the first temples and the dominant one in domes¬
tic architecture and Byzantine tiles, form the quarry of Greek history for Pikionis' materi¬
als.

A wooden propylon marks the threshold between the promenade to Philoppapos hill
and the precinct defined by the church and the refreshment place (Figs 6. 47-48). Tree
trunks are used to construct a pergola, a small garden and fences here and there.

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160 -
 In the light of these simple structures the whole intervention abandons for a while the
Classical era to enter the timeless vernacular realm. The stonepaths now associate with
stone yards throughout Greece or even the cobble yards of the Greek islands. And the
geometric patterns happily accompany the traditional pebble patterns. Also, this propylon
could easily be considered to imitate the Mycenaean timber colonades and later the timber
portico of the first temples, forerunners of their Classical petrification in white marble.

Pikionis manages to treat all materials with equal respect, but establishes a hierarchy
among them by appropriating a situational logic in parallel with an overall subtle ordering.
He carefully fuses materials together in an ordered way but doing justice to them. We do
not feel these materials and the constructions as imposed on the landscape. They never

acquire more emphasis than a tree or a cluster of bushes.

6. 3. 4. MEANINGFUL PATTERNS

Pikionis1 stonepaths alternatively converge to a geometric formation and diverge to a

free flow of stones again (fig. 6.4?). This dialectics of order and disorder penetrates the whole
architectonic intervention and deserves our attention.

As we walk along, fragments of white marble in geometric patterns appear almost

accidentally. Any sort of rhetoric ordering or mere!/utilitarian one is absent; yet we cannot
speak of haphazard disposition. An ambiguity is created, but not a disturbing one because
it is meaningful at every stage of interpretation, despite the fact that it defies complete
analysis. We are happy to encounter a square piece of marble amid broken limestone. We
are not lost in a chaotic assembly of stones. We start feeling orientated in space, able to
distinguish between different parts of the path network. We feel content with the individual
marble presence amid a mass of stones and this leads us to realize the particularity of
every single stone. We pass by a specific formation only to encounter another one further
on. We evaluate every stone, we acknowledge the particularity of each one and the way
they all participate m each pattern.

Straight lines, realised in marble pieces, contrast to surrounding natural forms. In this
sense the Classical temples appear something completely different from their natural
environment. Their pure geometric forms complete the long process of their evolution from
natural forms, yet these forms defy natural lines (Figs 6. 49-50).

Parthenon becomes meaningful as the epitome of human creation, the other being the
natural. Acknowledging its origins in the Mycaenean megaron and the Doric tradition, it
marks a decisive break from them. Tree trunks, used for all sorts of buildings throughout
Greek history, have been perfected in the exquisite geometry of the fluted columns and

161 -
marble slates in perfect orthogonal shape have substituted the sun-dried tiles.

In Parthenon we witness the epitome of human creation being offered as a God's

house. It clearly indicates that Classical Greeks believed in Gods, but also a belief in their
own ability to create. Parthenon stands as man's greatest contribution to nature, as some¬

thing that nature cannot create, or at least it can only do it in the human mind.

Time, in nature's service, tends to 'naturalize' everything and Parthenon defies that.
Still today the brightness of its columns and the acuteness of its angles resist the natural
process of decay and the historical vicissitudes. Parthenon defies even the nature of human
vision. It seems that 'optical illusion', as for instance when we see straight lines as curved
and parallel lines as diverging, is masterly anticipated and compensated. Optical refinement,
that is, slight curvature in all the architectural elements, resulted in a perfect appearance of
a geometric edifice, unlike any natural creation. One could go as far as to understand
Parthenon as materialized abstraction and petrified perfection.

The way things appear is of seminal importance to understand the development of

Classical Greek architecture, as well as Pikionis' fiddling with detailed construction. The
glaring sun of the South, the Greek light penetrates everything exposing every minute
feature of the landscape so that to be seen. The Greek writer P. Giannopoulos said of the
Greek light:

_...clarity is the power of light. The only regulator of the arts is how something
is seen. It is seen, hence it is possible to refine it infinitely. Here is the neces¬

sity of detail. It is seen, hence every excessive protuberance will be disturbing.

Here is the necessity for lack of throng, superfluity, exuberance. ( P. Gianno¬
poulos, The Greek Line )

Apollo, the shining one, was the God of the arts and the human intellect; and light,
etymologically related to how something appears, was the more important factor in every
work of art. When the Classical Athenians were building their temples they attempted to
bring to light the quintessense, the permanent principles of nature (Fig. 6. 51).

Under the same Attic light and moulded into the same bare and austere landscape,
Pikionis interprets the marble sculpture of the Classical temples in a 2-D representational
mosaic. Nature again is concealed underground and only some partial appearances remind
us of its overt Classical manifestation. Pikionis, in the way he constructs his stonepaths, is
equally scenographic with the temples, in the sense that takes great care how things appear.
Different limestone colours and the juxtaposition of grey limestone and white marble in

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particular, allow him to play with light and shade in a petrified form (Figs 6. 52-53). The
third dimension is found in the olive-trees, the bushes and the people who enliven it. If
Parthenon is a complete and perfect creation in itself, Pikionis's paths find their completion
in contemporary life.

It is no accident that the Athenian acropolis, the realm of perfection, was the Gods'
realm, and the Athenians the imperfect mortals, but worthy of these Gods. The ideal Clas¬
sical temple however was not to abolish nature or even conquer her. In fact it is nature in
the natura naturans analogy i.e. nature as principles of creation, that provided the arche¬
type for the Classical temple and it is in this sense that it is a tribute to her, while comple¬

menting her at the same time. Classical forms are ransomed from the appearance of nature .

Nature is subordinated to the austerity of geometrical composition. If nature was to be

found everywhere in the Attic landscape in the trees, the stones, in the living organisms,
the Classical Athenians had managed to create her archetype as well, her principles and her
life power.

The Classical order reverberates in Pikionis' geometric compositions, which constitute a

sort of dynamic field attracting around them the adjacent context, while being carried away
in its flux.

6. 3. 5. THE WALK AND THE WAY

Improving the landscape around the acropolis and the nearby hills, is not Pikionis'
only purpose. The walk itself, as the way to them, is treated as being more important. A
walk in its utilitarian, recreational or spiritual sense is what Pikionis is after. The paths are

utilitarian but not the shortest possible, they are recreational but not just for providing a
solid ground for somebody who wants to breath fresh air in a natural environment. Pikionis
intends to stimulate various associations, to appeal to the walker in a wholistic sense.

It is a happy coincidence that approaching acropolis from the north, we follow a

street called theorias (of theory), which gradually merges into Pikionis' path. Keeping its
name from the Classical times it reminds us that theoria was the foundation for Classical

Greece's intellectual achievement. Literally meaning observation, it originally implied look¬

ing at something, viewing, observing with the eyes and later came to mean observation of
the mind, that is, contemplation, speculation, arriving at conceptual principles.

What constitutes Pikionis' intention cannot but remind us of the ancient peripatos

(walk around), which went round the foothills of the acropolis from the archaic and even
Mycaenean times, leading to the altars and the sanctuaries sculpted on the rock (Figs 6.
54-57). The contemporary stonepaths in the greater area around the acropolis, are saturated

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163 -
with memories from these archaic pathways, the realm of Godess Hecate who accepted
offerings laid down on the paths, the Classical paved streets marked by stone boundaries,
the
the so called horos (boundary), the public streets at the agora with hermes (God Hermes'
heads) alongside to protect the walkers.

Pikionis' path on the north of the acropolis hill, revives in contemporary terms the
last 100m of the Panathenaic procession (Figs 6. 58-59). This procession started from
Eleusis after the mysteries; it followed the sacred way through Kerameikos to end up on
the acropolis at the Parthenon. The Classical Athenians chose ■■ the single theme of the
Panathenaic procession to depict on all four sides of the Parthenon frieze. The Panathenaic
procession epitomised for Classical Greeks all forms of ritual processions, a dominant
ritual form throughout archaic Greek history.

Pikionis acknowledges all these dimensions and manifests them in his contemporary
intervention which still carries a pious, religious significance. Contemporary experience of
the stonepaths becomes 'a litany of pilgrims in some modern Panathenaia'. In these paths
our 'pace changes, it becomes rhythm'. Millenia after the Classical processions, he
manages to maintain the qualities of the forest path, the sacred way and the public street.
Only he does that in a contemporary way and this, the main issue of this thesis, is the rea¬
son for dwelling in his intervention as a paradigmatic one.

6. 3. 6. ATTEMPTING A DIALECTICAL INTERPRETATION

6. 3. 6. 1. A MATTER OF HIERARCHY

Adopting the Classical era as our touchstone is an eclectic attitude. Yet, it is justified
by the influence, the inspiration, the common origin and the reference point that the Classi¬
cal times acquired at all subsequent stages of cultural development in Greece. Clearly
Pikionis addresses the history of the Acropolis, of Athens, of Greece, of the Mediterranean
and so forth, only he does that through a more evident reference to the Classical times. The
same spirit prevailed to justify the puristic approach to the Classical culture against any
other subsequent period, when the Classical temples were cleared from all subsequent
accretions and modifications. Turkish buildings, the mosque, Frankish and vernacular
houses, Byzantine churches, had to be removed to reveal the Classical remains which were
valued most at the beginning of the 19th century. Pikionis despite the dominance of Classi¬
cal references in his work, also recollects the monuments of all subsequent periods,
which although materially absent on the Acropolis now, -• are acknowledged as equally
participating to the history of the site, the history of Athens, the history of Greece and
whatever more comprehensive context we can think of.

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164 -
6. 3. 6. 2. THE ANCIENT AND THE MODERN

Pikionis' arrangement of the path-stones appear at first contrasting to the Classical

temples. They appear fragmented in juxtaposition to the completeness of the Classical ord¬
ers. Loose stones in search for a pattern, contrast vividly to the rigidity of Parthenon's
Doric columns and this contrast gives a sort of contemporariness to Pikionis' intervention
(Figs 6. 60-61).

Pikionis' paths are alive as part of the contemporary life. Although initially they
present a borrowed from the Classical temples existence, they finally acquire their own

identity. The Japanese architect K. Kurokawa wrote characteristically:

At the top of the ascent Pikionis' road comes to an end. When I looked back I
saw a crowd of people unconsciously enjoying walking up the opposite slope to
the acropolis. The Parthenon was displaying its usual cold shape and I thought
that while the Parthenon may express the dead form of ancient Greece, Pikionis'
road expresses the living space of present-day Greece.

In Kurokawa's terms the merits of Pikionis intervention are expressed as contrasting

to the Classical context A clarification is needed here. Pikionis' intervention is not just
different from Parthenon. It is a complete contrast to its context and as such it is because
of complete understanding
that^is able to be meaningfully juxtaposed to it. A concrete-slab
pavement for instance, could also be considered as contrasting to the Classical context, but

only in a trivial sense i.e. as something which is different while it does not necessarily
communicate with its context Concrete slab pavement or uniform tiles could only be asser¬
tive interventions to the Classical context and an uncritical differentiation from it. They
could only maintain a borrowed existence without offering or creating anything new.

Classical architecture was part and parcel of a philosophy encompassing all aspects of
life and Pikionis wants to create something equivalent by seeking for the contemporary
Greek identity. The same glaring sun and limestone is there. The harsh and austere
landscape little differs from the Classical one and some of the olive trees are much closer
to what for contemporary Greeks is a legend. The sacred precinct of Godess Athena is still
venerated. Yet, some contemporary connective bonds between all these elements are loose
or missing.

What in previous chapters has been described as "third term" of dialectical interaction
is evident here. These paths share a contemporaneity alongside their relation to the ancient
temples. This fact enables a cross-fertilization where ancient life finds its way in

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165 -
contemporary forms and present day life traces its roots in the traditional context. On one

hand these paths are contemporary ones. Functional, practical, providing benches in the
way and overall easy access to the Classical site (Fig. 6. 62). On the other hand by their
distinct particularity, their identity in each part and as a whole against any other path
ascribe to them the quality of being "diachronic vehicles" enabling them to constitute the
link between the Classical and contemporary Greek spirit.

Approaching the Parthenon and the other Classical temples, we associate them with
the paths as their physical continuation and extension to contemporary life. In fact we can¬

not avoid noticing that both share a quest for order and this constitutes the common ground
for their dialogue. Pikionis in articulating his paths imitated the Classical temples in this
sense, only to reveal through that the way in which they differ as well.

The contemporary-ancient dialogue becomes meaningful and fertile exactly as in the

nearby Athenian Agora Socrates, Plato and Aristotle used dialogue to address all the philo¬
sophical issues. Philosophical dialogues reveal in written form what the temples also
demonstrate. The Classical metron, the golden mean in all sizes and proportions, the notion
of balance and harmony do not but manifest the continuous dialectics between the Dorian
and the Ionian styles, the passive and the active architectural members, the natural and the
man-made.

Pikionis intervention exaggerates what is latent and continues a dialogue, which has
been going on since then. The supremacy of the human mind, the outmost creation of the
individual who alongside its Gods, creates as well as continues the Gods' creation.

Classical Greece represents the transition of traditional societies to the modem situa¬
tion. Originated in a religious society, they reached a point of humanising even their Gods,
making them . take part in everyday life. And these temples express exactly this fact; the
tte , *
perfect co-operation of Gods and humans, itself being a human creation for.Gods sake. The
the
existence of Gods through the human belief in them and the human existence as^Gods'
creation- a perfect dialogue finding expression in a perfect manifestation. Hesiod in his
Theogony had already referred that Gods and mortals sprang from the same source, and it
is on the Athenian acropolis where the human mind coincides with its source. Even
Plato's ideal temple of the ideal republic was visualized as the Parthenon. A society which
reached the human ideal only at the price of losing it again afterwards, inviting and stimu¬
lating all subsequent generations to laboriously redeem it (Figs 6. 63-64).

In contrast to the Classical ideal, Pikionis juxtaposes a humble human creation,

reassembling the fragments of the ideal in order to understand it properly through the filters
of historical vicissitudes. Fragmented materials, fragmented patterns, fragmented images of

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166 -
human and divine order. He carefully recomposes memories, material fragments, historical
qualities and values and in this sense renders the Classical antiquity accessible, practi¬
cally and essentially, literally and metaphorically, to contemporary society (Figs 6. 65-71).

Contemporary Athens being an accumulation of Greek citizens from all parts of con¬

tinental and island parts-in juxtaposition to the citystates, although later democracy was
extended towards allies from all Greece- finds its best contemporary architectonic expres¬
sion in these paths which attempt above all a contemporary search for "Greekness". It is a

happy coincidence that Anafiotika- an area in the northern part of the acropolis hill -is
inhabited by immigrants from a remote Aegean island completing in this way the mosaic
figure of diachronic Greekness. The Aegean element, source of the Classical tradition,
redeemed in modern times.

Pikionis' stone-paved "currents" that stretch up to the acropolis and the nearby hills,
express in the most profound way the contemporary situation. A current of contemporary
Greek life made up from past materials and orders but fragmented and in flow. Geometric
patterns, fragments of architectonic orders are literally emerging and submerging while we
follow the current.

Are these fragments of materials, patterns and orders, to imply their lost order in
4hcy
a nostalgic sense, or are/there, perhaps, to manifest their innate potential towards another
order (Figs 6. 72-74)? Pikionis does not provide answers; instead he renders meaningful
the questions. If Classical architecture was an architecture for an age of perfection,
Pikionis' paths is an architecture of the way. It is the architecture of the process. If
Parthenon is a triumphant manifestation of the human enterprise, Pikionis' architecture
emphasizes the way towards an end as more important. In the contemporary post-modern
situation, devoid of any absolute truth and dogma, Pikionis clearly adopts a meditative

standpoint but so inextricably connected to the Classical absolutism that it finally ends up

\>y complement it.

In contrast to contemporary ideals the Parthenon appears rigid, dominant and com¬

plete in itself as a spatial existence. As an ideal it defies growth and life. Contemporary
qualities, as manifested in Pikionis' intervention, mix along with historic ones in a dynamic
dialectic schema contextually meaningful at its every stage. This dialectic schema does not
discriminate against the Classical or contemporary architecture. It aquires its dialectical
existence simultaneously and pays tribute to both.

Classical architecture necessarily is projected into contemporary Athenian life and is

evaluated according to contemporary values. Pikionis through his intervention only materi¬
alizes this reality. In turn, it is always against a context that we evaluate our contemporary

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achievements. Pikionis chooses the Classical architecture as his touchstone for his interven¬

tion in the vicinity of the acropolis, while the Byzantine and the vernacular elements
predominate at Loumbardiaris complex (Figs 6. 75-76).

6. 3. 6. 3. THE CONTINUITY OF THE CONTEXT

Pikionis acknowledges all Greek history and in particular focusses on the Athenian
one, but he establishes a hierarchy through a certain viewpoint in his attempt to conceive
all Athenian history as a whole and to address what is lasting and true. This unification
viewpoint for Pikionis is arete, virtue. David Holden wrote about this point:

_... (Pikionis') creed is that good architecture grows more from virtue than from
knowledge-which is why, he reflects, much of modem Athens is so bad. Virtue,
he believes, resided in the ancient Greeks because they understood their own
nature and its relationship to their land. Equally, it belongs now to the Greek
peasant whose simple, traditional forms express by instinct the principles of
modesty and proportion that the ancient made into a philosophy.

But Pikionis, in Holden's words, is neither an ancient nor a peasant himself. Pikionis
is a seeker of virtue. He acknowledges a sort of timelessness in it and seeks it throughout
Greek history. Many can criticize him for his eclecticism; hardly can anyone deny that
eclecticism in general is unavoidable in any assessment of the past; few could suggest an

acceptable alternative.

Pikionis conceives all phases of Greek history as instances of a coherent whole and
critically injects to it contemporary life. Oneness, or unity, allows him to establish a con¬

tinuity and a sense of place despite his temporary stepping out to interprete the context.
Matisse once expressed this dialectic structure of artistic creation when he said:

_...when painting an artist must be believing he is imitating nature but when he

stands back to think, he must use abstraction.

Beyond historical limits Pikionis finds a common thread, what he coins as virtue,
which allows him to follow it to the present. He finds the landscape as a manifestation of
the mystery of matter, exactly as matter incorporating its principles and forces is moulding
the landscape while being landscape itself. The same force which is concretized in the
Classical temples, the Athenian democracy, the sounds of language, the hair of Zeus, the
gown of the peasants, the Greek dances, the flute in the Doric columns and the krotafos,
temple of Aeschylus (Figs 6. 77-78). Pikionis in compassion with nature feels the

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opposites to interweave and create the one. And he strives to understand everything from
the one.

The dialectics between the Dorian and Ionian traditions becomes now
intelli$\Wy
resolved in the Classical temples. The Ionian element in Classical society recapitulated all
the archaic cults of the feminine. The cult of Demeter relating to mother earth and the
archaic deities of Persefoni, Gaia, Pandora, the myth of the Amazons
a- fevA- are only
examples of pre-Homeric Greek religions. The mild temperament of Asia and the fast
growing landscape could not but shape the feminine Ionian thought. The Dorian conquerers
stand on the opposite side, the masculinepower and the philosophy of action.

The Classical statue of kore, always in elegant peplos, gown, manifests elegance and
charm while the Classical statue of kouros, always nude, manifests strength, power and
rigour (Figs 6. 79-82). In Godess Athena we find the balance. A woman warrior, elegant
but powerful as well. Dialectics of the opposites becomes the key issue to understand the
Classical mind. Individuality finds its place along with society. It is no wonder that in
Athens of the 6th century we find the first signed work of art, and individuality culminated
later i*f rivalry in the arts, in the Olympic games, in politics and in philosophy. On the
other hand democracy, equality undev law. The agora becomes the place par excellence
where dialogue takes place. In the Classical times Ionian thought is integrated with Dorian
action and Ionian philosophy with politics. In the arts of the Classical times, the perfect
relation of parts to the whole as subordination of the parts to the whole without loosing
their individuality, becomes reality.

Oneness, or unity, through abstraction and dialectics, characterizes any synthesis, any

attempt towards balance and harmony. Unity between passive and active architectural
members, characterizes the harmonious logic of construction. Unity between the Ionian
symbolic imitation of nature, the stylistic depiction of its appearance and the Dorian
abstraction, pure imitation and depiction of the essence of nature, characterizes Classical

perfection (Figs 6. 83-86). Oneness between the individual and the society characterizes
democracy. In this sense Pikionis attempts a synthesis in his interpretation of the past in
order to attune his own creation to the existing unity and subsequently create a new one.

This oneness of the setting in the present, is what connects invisibly the levels of
interpretation which support any joyful experience of the Athenian hills in. the vicinity of
the Classical acropolis.

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6. 3. 6. 4. THE DIALECTICS OF DESTRUCTION AND CONSTRUCTION

Fragments of past orders becomes the only available material in Pikionis' hands and
he carefully recycles them, making the best of all the associations and qualities that every

piece of marble carries. He acts as a bricoleur, to use here Levi-Strauss1 term. He collects
diachronic fragments, pieces of past structures to articulate his own. Destruction, caused by
historical vicissitudes and aging, ends up to provide a basis upon which Pikionis erects a

contemporary architectonic creation (Fig. 6. 87).

Eclecticism thus presents a double face; evaluation of some instances of the past at
the expense of others. We mentioned already how Frankish towers, Turkish accretions
along with earlier Hellenistic and Roman strata, had to be sacrificed for the sake of the
Classical temples. Hardly can anyone argue against this eclecticism and still fewer can

deny the double face of eclecticism, and that eclecticism is intervention. Before Pikionis'
landscaping, utilitarian concrete pavement provided access to the Acropolis and still
today a light concrete band runs through the temples. Pikionis left the latter as its neutral
appearance accentuated the importance of the temples (Figs 6. 63-64). The path network
around the hill, however, was too neutral and passive a tribute to the Classical times. It
only respected an antiquated monument and not an alive part of contemporary life in
Athens. Pikionis rejected this utilitarian or passive approach and decided to create a con¬

temporary response, an active acknowledgement of the Classical values. The earlier con¬
crete path was either too passive or too assertive to communicate and establish a dialogue
with the history of the site.

6. 3. 6. 5. PERMANENT AND EPHEMERAL QUALITIES

Pikionis does not limit his horizons by considering the classical temple alone as

empty form . Instead, he goesfto understand the life process behind the Classical architec¬
ture. He goes beyond that to understand the Attic landscape, the rock of the acropolis,
the geometry of nature, what happened to the limestone from its fiery liquid state to the
solid rigidity of its present rocky condition (Fig. 6. 51). In fact he never stops philosophiz¬
ing, enquiring about the nature of things with nature considered as in the natura naturans
analogy, that is nature as what appears to be as well as the forces which create, transform
and destroy things. He clearly continues the way of the early Ionian philosophers, their
inquisitive search of nature in its forces. A story is told about Pikionis' reaction when a
stone in a part of the whole intervention broke after laborious fiddling. Pikionis was
delighted and declared that his path should follow the jaggedness of the rock.
Classical architecture clearly indicates the ability of Classical Greeks at geometrical

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perfection. Geometry was used as a unifying conceptual system towards abstraction and
oneness beyond the diversity of the manifestation of forms. Geometry as the power of -

abstraction, and not as sterile symmetry or empty patterns, served the Classical Greeks to
achieve order. Yet, they went beyond that in creating also something alive far from the
sterility of a dead symmetry, or any patterned system. Geometry, although a magnificent
tool,was not considered as a true source of creation. Geometry as an end could not achieve
a perfection to last. It remained a tool, a means to achieve something beyond that, perfec¬
tion.

Pikionis in his intervention clearly "historicizes" geometry as a conceptual system, a

tool of another era, to reach its deepest essence and its ultimate puipose, the strife for
order. Dealing with geometrical patterns in passim, he renders geometry a relative tool in
relation to the timeless quality of the human quest for order, whatever that order could be
at every time and however it can be expressed.

Pikionis' intervention shares this striving for perfection only in another sense. In jux¬
taposition to measurable and quantifiable geometry he places every stone in symbolic,
almost natural formations. He creates an equally disciplined order, as every artistic creation
should do, only his order is of another kind subtlely related to the Qassical one. Ancient
temples, or rather Classical from the time of their early formation and their origins amid
forrests and natural landscapes, created an order of different kind to the natural one around.
Pikionis in his intervention redeems the natural one in contemporary terms. Nature and
man once again need to be united at least for the few hundred metres that the path network
covers. The fate of humanity to find and create order is once again here celebrated. The
marble pieces of the Classical era, once in order, falling subsequently apart only to be
reassembled in another order in Pikionis intervention.

Should he attempt to create a strict geometric pattern throughout, it would belong, at

its best, to another era. It could not be perceived in the process of walking in the sense the
free standing Classical temples can. More, geometry is not the order of our times. The
Parthenon was to be one, stable, perfect geometric piece of sculpture, to be seen from
every point in the Athenian Agora. It was meant to be the immutable amid an ever chang¬
ing life process taking place in its vicinity. Today, things have changed. Pikionis strives for
something equivalent. He attempts to create something in analogy and he imitates and he
contrasts to the context in his attempt to change it in a contemporary way, while keeping
what is still significant and alive.

His prime concern is to articulate in architectural terms what still is alive of the Qas¬
sical temples, the Hellenistic agora and the Byzantine monuments, to mention only some of

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Pikionis' quarries of reference. The fusion of references he attempts is one of his age and
although he does not intend to be assertive and monumental, he creates qualities and facili¬
tates the creation of others through everyday life, which will remain there and will charac¬
terize the place as time passes by. Reaching the refreshment place, the most contemporary
part of the whole composition, we have the best view of the acropolis.

Pikionis' intervention attunes us to its ultimate dialectics between the new and the

old. Contemporary life is defined at the intersection, or the fusion, of both the ancient and
the modern, the humble and the ideal, the everyday and the timeless, the human and the
divine. Pikionis' intervention is neither too servile to the ancient, nor too assertive of the

new. He communicates with the the past and continuous it in the present. Contemporary
life inevitably is revealed as an allegory of the way, the middle path between Classical
idealism and vernacular realism. The virtue of the Classical period allows Pikionis to
think of the Classical culture as vernacular, and the timelessness of the vernacular allows
him to think of it as Classical (Fig. 6. 88). As we walk along the paths on the hills around
the acropolis we become aware of the contemporary qualities of life along with its timeless
ones. After all, if contemporary life is to share anything at all with that of the Classical
times, it is that life always existed between Eleusis and Parthenon; Eleusinian mysteries

symbolizing human life as a continuous process of death and recreation and the Parthenon
symbolizing the permanency of the ideal.

6. 3. 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS

Pikionis' paths follow obediently the curves and irregularities of the ground. They are

"natural", naive, humble and anonymous. Yet,ttey respect the characteristics of each place.
Although a common order is shared, there is no repetition. In contrast to the assertive char¬
acter of the Classical temples, Pikionis' paths are closer to the vernacular spirit.
Parthenon's base emerges out of the rock as the only horizontal line in the landscape. It is
perfectly geometrical, yet it is not symmetrical and each column participates to the temple
it belongs to in its own way. No two columns are exactly the same in that the position of
each dictates its particular optical refinements. What is more important, order for the Clas¬
sical Athenians was a joint enterprise with their Gods.

Pikionis shares the religious character of the place, but clearly in his approach the
intellectual quest for order, the human ideal, has been substituted with faith. It is a pious
approach to what he acknowledges as a perennial Greek virtue, as it is expressed in the
unpretentious buildings of vernacular Greek settlements. In discovering this latent thread
spanning the whole of Greek history, he is able to contribute to the narrative identity of the
place.

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 At the end Pikionis' paths remain open to interpretation. Their identity swinging
between the ancient and the modem, enhance a wide spectrum of cultural significance and
anticipate future interpretation, evaluation and intervention. The final "aporia remains
unsolved; are these paths foundations for a forthcoming new order or, perhaps, remains of
an old one?

6. 4. DISCUSSION - INTERPRETATION AS PARTICIPATION

In the previous examples we attempted to articulate an interpretive framework likely

to illustrate their potential as successful interventions in their context. Rossi's intervention
[y\ Venice and Pikionis' at the Acropolis of Athens have been suggested as indicative,

although in exaggeration, of what seems to be the case in most situations, where the rela¬
tion of the new to the old is at stake.

Pikionis' architectonic intervention constitutes a realm of concrete experience and as

such, by definition, defies any exhaustive interpretation, while it can sustain several

interpretations relating to the context. Interpretation is here used not as some sophisticated,
intellectual activity, but as the unavoidable outcome of our resonance with what we experi¬
ence and the need to make intelligible sense of it. What is attempted here is a personal
fusion, yet attempting to describe and provide the ground for a web of possible legitimate

(contextually significant) interpretations. Thus, interpretation neither exhausts, nor restrains

various associations, allusions and evocations, people can identify with. Yet, it provides a
common ground to interrelate them. Pikionis' landscaping appeals to us directly, as a
whole exactly because it is not exhausted ir) sterile rhetoric but engages instead in a last¬
ing dialogue with its precursors at the same setting and mainly with the epitome of them,
the Classical architecture.

Rossi, in his teatro, attempts to render an abstraction of Venice, out of an apparent

multiplicity of architectural idioms. He attempts to find the converging point amid the mul¬
tifarious formal diversity of the Venetian context and follows a reductionist approach to
distill out of a rich vocabulary what is of importance today. He imitates Venice in order to
keep her identity, while he critically opposes what is there in order to manifest what is
alive today. Through his teatro the whole history of Venice is evoked, while all the histor¬
ical diversity finds its to the present. Rossi's teatro is emblematic, formally and function¬
ally alike of the Venetian identity, while encompassing its diverse facets.

Pikionis faces, perhaps, the opposite problem from Rossi's. He considers the Classi¬
cal temples as the archetype and the ideal of all Greek culture and attempts to render the

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Classical culture apprehensive in contemporary terms. Pikionis takes his commision to
redesign the access to the Acropolis and the nearby hills as a challenge to provide access

to them in a metaphorical sense as well. He renders the Classical culture as part of the
Greek vernacular tradition and this allows him to recompose the mosaic of Greekness, as it
emerges diachronically. Pikionis intervention is a humble approach to the Classical spirit
and its extension into the present, which is what a path to the Acropolis should be.

In both attempts we come to assess their relation to their contexts in terms of imita¬
tion and contrast. Through these concepts we come to realize the identity of a context
behind its apparent diversity and, conversely, the potentiality of identity for diversificatioa
Both cases illustrate, perhaps in exaggeration, the real problems concerning the relation of
new to the old in the man-made environment; the constant oscillation between maintaining
the identity of a setting while keeping it alive by formal diversification, as the socio-
cultural entity changes.

In both examples interpretation occured as a necessary consequence of our participa¬

tion and involvement with what is experienced. Interpretation accompanies and attempts to
reason about some of our feelings, while ii anticipates and enhances others. In each of
the above examined cases interpretation took place on a diversity of levels, depending upon
the entities that could be discerned or designated for each case and their actual significance
in time. These considerations are important, since they manifest the ways in which people
make sense of the built environment they live in and understand architectural change.

In other words the structure of each intervention emerged out of the particular and
idiosyncratic character of each case. The landscape, the materials, the geometrical patterns
and the particularity of the formation for the path network;, seemed to be appropriate to
consider. In Rossi's teatro the volumetric configuration, the way of construction as a

ready made object, and its particular function, seemed to characterize it best. These levels
of interpretation and their outcome were considered, in particular, through the polarities
introduced in Chapter Four. What is more important in both cases, is that new architecture
provided the terms for its experience, in its context, and the criteria for its interpretation
and evaluation.

No blueprint for interpretation could do justice to the particularity of each case. So,
every interpretation is expected to be subjective, depending on the experiencer, that is, his
state of mind, his familiarity with the place and even his knowledge of the cultural history
of the place, where new architecture is grafted on. In Chapter Four we described the antici¬
pated experiencer as "ideal", that is, with full knowledge of the setting, where new archi¬
tecture relates to. However fictional this assumption appears to be, it does not seem to

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 impair the validity of our theoretical framework, as far as different interpretations can be
interrelated as aspects of a coherent whole which invites many readings, while excluding
arbitrariness. In Pikionis' intervention, for instance, it is not a problem if somebody
identifies more with the Byzantine elements, the vernacular, or the Classical ones. In fact,
it is inevitable that different people will identify with different aspects of the paths. Yet, it
is obvious that these paths can hardly facilitate and legitimize inappropriate interpretations
based on irrelevant ideas. For example, despite the influence that Japanese architecture and
Japanese gardens had on Pikionis, there is little doubt that his architecture could not be
thought in a Japanese context where, for one reason, specific symbolism and spiritual emp¬
tiness should predominate. Pikionis' work instead favours the intellectual abstraction and
the humble simplicity of Greek architecture.

The interpretation process, as described above, could be characterized as playful. As

with play, it acquires its existence through human participation. New architecture in this
sense never emerges in a definite and complete sense, but is rather continuously revealed.
In both cases of new architecture in historic context, several contextual interpretations of
fhe new architecture contribute towards a unity of the context, because - as legitimate interpre¬
tations -
they reveal several aspects of it. An overall order is suggested, which leads, by
virtue of being the common denominator, from one aspect to another. Coherence between
contextual associations, allusions and evocations in our interpretation, interweaves contex¬
tual references so that . the quality of a place cav? unfold continuously, while being
illuminated from different angles.

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 CHAPTER SEVEN

DIALECTICAL HERMENEUTICS AS A VALUE JUDGEMENT THEORY

7. 1. INTRODUCTION

Dialectical hermeneutics, as developed so far in this study, is not a neutral theory, i.e.
capable only of describing the relations between old and new architecture. It can also
judge the appropriateness of new architecture by measuring the comprehensiveness of its
dialectical relation to its context.

So far we have given emphasis to the continuity of the interpretation, which binds
together new and old architecture in a setting. Continuity within the interpretation process
can adequately address the wholistic nature of architectural novelty, which relates to a set¬

ting as a whole at several levels and participates in the process for its development. This
continuity evolves from one level of significance to another with no specific hierarchy fol¬
lowed in its succession. One aspect of a new building vis a vis its context and vice versa
does not lead to another in any deterministic way, but rather in a ludic one. Continuity is
not treated as an a posteriori concept used to describe the interpretation process. It is rather
an inherent potential of it. So, the transition from one level of interpretation to another
relates more to the creativity of new architecture in a setting, because of its appropriateness
in it, rather than to any structuralistic schema.

Play, considered in its philosophical dimensions,is here employed to describe, in an

analogical sense, the mode in which an appropriate novelty is engaged dialectically with
the setting it is grafted into. Consequently, it can also be used as an evaluation criterion for
new architecture in old settings. Consequently, the problem of reliable criteria for the
evaluation of new architecture in existing settings arises.

In the second part we examine the possibility of an ultimate goal, or rather the poten¬
tial of the interpretation process qua ludic, to guide interpretation and inform the evaluation
of new architecture in old settings.

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7. 2. DIALECTIC ARCHITECTURAL HERMENEUTICS AS PLAY

The dialectic process which characterizes the struggle of the opposites in contextual
architectonic interpretation and the overall interaction between old and new architecture,
can be described as play (1). Inherent potential, creativity and a evolutionary character,
allow for the interpretation process relating new and old architecture to be conceptualized,
in an analogical sense, as play. The importance of the interpretation process over each of
its diverse levels of realization also allows for this analogy. Moreover, this analogy is
further ■> •* reinforced by the fact that the multiplicity of interpretations, succeed one
another not in any methodic, predetermined order but they rather follow a playful transition
from one level to another. Play describes both the indeterminacy in the struggle of the
opposites at every particular level, the state of aporia, and the transition from one level to
another in the interpretation process.

The notion of play permeates the whole of this study as it is intrinsically related to
the dialectics of the opposites (2). Some of its characteristics will illustrate further its
relevance to the architectural issues discussed here.

The flow that characterizes the interpretative process of new architecture vis a vis its
context, as with play, is more important than some definite end or even the interpreter. One
interpretation of the rapport between old and new architecture evokes or suggests another
and the interpreter is just the means to reveal and maintain that process. Whatever the start¬
ing point of the interpretation process, it subsequently works in such a way, in contextual
terms, so that at every level it illuminates, suggests and reveals contextual dimensions, as it
unfolds indefinitely. Again the life of the setting, if new architecture in it enhances it, is
the power behind the unity between different interpretations and their interplay. As we

have already-meviiioriecl elsewhere {Chapter f've-) . Heidegger has described this indefinite
process of understanding and interpretation as a circular process, which nevertheless is
ontologically positive. This process is treated here in the same sense. Indefinite, yet onto-
logically significant in its manifestations.

Play binds successive :« wholistic interpretations while on another level it binds

all the interpretation process to the object of interpretation and the interpreter. The notion
of play also suggests, in an analogical sense, the creation of a symbolic field meaningful in
contextual terms instead of any definite and deterministic association. It expresses best the
symbolic ambiguity which characterizes the interpretation process jiself.

Another reason that allows for the interpretation process to be theorized in analogy to
play, is its lack of some specific goal. In other words thdmportance of the process over its
particular instances, manifested as different levels of interpretation, renders^legitimate for
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the interpretation process to be theorized as play along with the playful interchange of the
opposing facets at various levels. Furthermore, creativity is here considered as the main
characteristic of play and it is in this sense according to Gadamer that Plato, Kant and
Schiller conceived aesthetics in terms of play, the other way being that of a spoude, an

analytical scientific investigation (3).

Gadamer also conceptualizes the notion of play as the phenomenological notion par

excellence, to describe the hermeneutical process. For Gadamer, the concept of play pro¬
vides an alternative
tojbartesian model towards "objective knowledge. In aesthetic under¬
standing in particular the notion of play is best equipped to address the kind of knowledge
and the kind of truth that is transmitted, and which no scientific method can do justice to.

Despite the subjectivity in Schiller's theorization, play still can be the most adequate
notion to address the ontology of aesthetic experience i.e. the experience of art as being.
What is more important, despite the fact that play is played because it is not serious, from
the player's point of view, play is not defined negatively i.e. as the opposite of seriousness.
Play has its own ontological status and as such it is serious as well although in another
sense from seriousness. It is serious, yet aimless, without a definite purpose. In Gadamer's
ontological conceptualization of art, play occupies a central position (4). Attitudes to play,
Gadamer argues, are subjective but play itself isn't. As he puts it:

If, in connection with the experience of art, we speak of play, this refers neither
to the attitude nor even to the creator or of those enjoying the woric of art, not
to the freedom of a subjectivity expressed in play, but to the mode of being of
the work of art itself. (5)

Play serves the best model for describing the in-between position of artistic creation
where ambiguity and aporia constitutes its power and not the lack of it It describes better
than any analytic method the creativity in the rivalry and the struggle of the opposites.

Formal logic, working within the limits of a binary framework i.e. either a thing is or
is not something, cannot acknowledge the autonomy of the several levels of meaning
where despite the indeterminacy of the dialectic ludic process, meaning is ascribed. It can¬
not adequately address the aporia, the stage of ambiguity which cannot be reduced to a
binary level. An ever changing aporia, is the creative source for the multifaced interpreta¬
tion process, m order to address the ever changing contextual frames of reference. T.S. Eliot
had spoken of many faces of a poem and William Empson in his study "seven types of
ambiguity" has argued about the creativity of ambiguity and its potentiality to generate
values (6).

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 Several other characteristics of play are of major importance to our study. For
instance, the quality of flow i.e the quality of successive transformations characterizing the

process of play, describes best the transition from one level of interpretation to another.
Play depends on the player, and following our analogy, interpretation can occur in
indefinite ways, legitimate, yet always unavoidably subjective.

For instance, Rossi's teatro is susceptible to several interpretations in relation to its

context. Some people may start understanding it from its festivic character and see it within
the Venetian tradition of festivals. Others may start from its fragile lifetime and associate it
with the evasive face of Venice. To others its austere, centralized conception may represent
an abstract configuration of the Renaissance, Byzantine and Baroque temples of the Vene¬
tian setting. Yet, these particular instances, among others, can always be interrelated within
an inteipretative process. In other words whatever the starting point for the intepretation, an
indefinite dialectic process will evolve.

These characteristics of the interpretation process are quite compatible with our treat¬
ment of human experience as open, without a specific purpose for definite knowledge.
Gadamer argues even that:

The nature of experience is conceived in terms of that which goes beyond it; for
experience itself can never be science. It is in absolute antithesis to knowledge
and to that kind of instruction that follows from general theoretical or technical
knowledge. The truth of experience always contains an orientation towards new

experience. (7)

And further:

The dialectic of experience has its own fulfil-meni? not in definite knowledge,
but in that openess to experience that is encouraged by experience itself. (8)

Following Gadamer, we think that play is closer to truth, whatever truth might be,
than any analytical method, which necessarily legitimizes only what is not ambiguous. We
have to indicate the terms under which play can be established but finally interpretation is
a ludic process which although susceptible of framing, never allows its outcome to be
determined. In Gadamer's terms:

As the play is ambiguous, it can have its effect, which cannot be predicted, only
in being played. It is not its nature to be an instrument of masked goals that
only have to be unmasked for it to be understood, but it remains, as an artistic

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 play, in an indissoluble ambiguity. The occasionality it contains is not some¬

thing pre-given through which alone everything acquires its true significance
but, on the contrary, it is the work itself, whose expressive power is filled out in

this, as in every occasion. (9)

Unlike hermeneutical theories focusing upon the work of art and its creator relation¬
ships, the psycho-social data relating to the time of its creation and appreciation, or even

centering upon the autonomy of the work of art, or upon the reader-interpreter relationship
n n

(rezeptiontheorie), we focus upon the dialectic interpretative process itself. This process,
play-like, engages reader and work of art in a communicative basis where both partici¬
pate, interact and change. The work of art conditions the reader and the reader in turn is
projected upon the work of art. This play is, of course, necessarily "coloured" by the social
characteristics of both the reader and the work of art, but nevertheless it retains its primacy
over each one of them. In this way we not only understand, but we also formulate our

approach towards its renewal. Thus, not only passive interpretation of a specific context
occurs, but its elucidation in the present perspective, whether this is for the sake of the

experience or to guide new architecture. Finally, interpretation of the relation between new
and old, conceived as play ends up by changing a setting and the experiencer of the setting
himself.

7. 3. NEW ARCHITECTURE AS CREATIVE INTERVENTION:

OPENNESS TO CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATIONS

AS A CRITERION FOR AESTHETIC EVALUATION

If the interpretation process qua ludic has no ultimate goal, there arises the problem
of reliable criteria for the evaluation of architectonic interventions in existing settings. In an

ideal, fictional situation new architecture should be rendered contextually meaningful at all
levels. In reality, the more open the process of intepretation can be, the more likely it is to
address the context as a whole. It is here argued that the very indefiniteness of the interpre¬
tive process constitutes its potentiality (10).

If new architecture in a given setting is infinitely meaningful in its socio-cultural con¬

text , then it really addresses and renews this setting as a whole. In this sense, opermess to

interpretations in an architectonic intervention is a measure of its validity (11).

The dialectics of the opposites, as revealed through the imitation/contrast dialectics

between new architecture and its context, create a dynamic field able to sustain every con¬
textual interpretation, if new architecture is appropriate. New architecture addresses its

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context as a whole beyond the diverse levels at which the ludic interpretative process mani¬
fests itself. The concept of play determines more than anything else the essence, the katho-
lou (entireness) and the true nature of a setting, the diverse levels or aspects of which are

only representations of its being (12).

Every setting is characterized by a uniqueness in reference to every other setting,

while it is also characterised by the interaction between identity and difference in itself.
The ludic hermeneutical process in this sense attempts to understand and relate to the unity
of this setting.

The spirituality of a given setting, its genius loci or its katholou, account for its being
manifested in several forms. It is one thing, an entity and our diverse interpretations are only
aspects, dimensions and manifestation. It is a multiplicity generated by and aiming at
the one. As Mondrian expressed it:

A work of art is a monument able to play games with the masses. (13)

Only creative, i.e. appropriate, architectural intervention can give the power for the
continuity amid various interpretations, allowing the transition from one level to another in
our understanding process, generating, so to speak, contextual intepretations.

We have showed in Chapter Six how interpretation can evolve from one level of
intepretation to another. The materials, the construction technique, the use, and the sym¬

bolic significance were seen as aspects through which we could assess the relation between
new and old architecture. We have also examined in both Rossi's and Pikionis' interven¬

tions how one aspect relates to others.

In less successful examples the interpretative process cannot be sustained. The ludic
dialectics collapse and finally new architecture relates only to itself. Some new buildings
intended to relate to their surroundings manage only to keep the streetline, the texture, the
materials or some blueprint morphology. They attempt to create a link with their context
but they finally fail if they are limited in one or two aspects only and these not necessarily
the most important. Often their dialogue is exhausted after a few gimmicks and they can
be

onlyjdnterpreted to be self-referential.
The new building in Fig. 7. 1 clearly attempts to relate to its surroundings. It con¬
trasts to the old buildings by a striking difference in the materials used for its construction
and the construction techiques employed. The concrete slabs contrast to the timber frame,
while only the decorative aspects of the old construction techniques are imitated. In con¬
trast to the old, the new building hides its structural articulation. Apart from these aspects

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the new building seems "content" with this sort of superficial association only. It exhausts
itself in a brief comment of its context and apart from it it can express no real engagement

with it. The only thing that makes it belong there is an a-critical, if not indifferent, com¬

mentary to a past morphology. It reverses the significance of the half-timbered Mediaeval

buildings but does not clarify the purpose of this novelty. Does the new building express any-
thing more except,
perhaps,^that the present is different - no matter in what sense - to •••-
Mediaeval times?

The new building in Fig. 7. 2 attempts to create a link with the historic centre of
Amsterdam by keeping up with the height of the adjacent buildings. It can express nothing
more than a functional building, reluctantly subdued, to the Building Regulations. In
other words, it clearly expresses a forced co-habitation with a ^ otherwise irrelevant to it.
•c =•• <• Although intended to relate, it finally expresses a fragmented relation.

The new building in Matignon street in Paris, Figs 7. 3-4, "attempts" to incorporate
organically like fragments of the facade and some parts of the interior walls of the old
building, which was demolished to give its place to the new one. The morphology of the
old building is re-composed partly by the insertion of stones from the old building and
partly by tracing its image in glass. The new facade is like a cubistic expression of the
already existing materials and forms. The result is better than, for instance, copying the old
building, by using the same materials or the same morphology or keeping the old facade.
In the way it is this new building is more responsive to the present use, materials and taste.
Apart from this morphological play in the facade and in two interior walls, the composition
of the new building has nothing to do with its context. The faction of an office building
might be the same worldwide but it calls for a different way if it is to be more than a

purely utilitarian shell. Such a fashionably selective attitude towards the past express only
the appreciation of the past as "retro" or kitch.

The new building in Figs 7. 5-6 in Ravenna, is more appropriate to its context than
the previous examples. Restoration of part of the old facade and its integration into the
new building has been done in a more creative way. The old building is used in the new
synthesis not only as a decorative element, as was the case before, but as an integral part
of the whole building. The old part is used not because of its historic significance alone,
but as materials, as colours and as morphological articulation capable of being incorporated
into the new building. The building as a whole relates to its context from a specific stand¬
point It imitates in some ways aspects of its context, it contrasts to others but never fails
to be itself and express to relate to whatever characterizes its context. The structural articu¬
lation of the new building reverberates in brown aluminium and brown tinted glass the arch
articulation of the old building, the colours of the surrounding buildings. The light relief on

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the facade expresses an articulation of the texture responsive to the nearby neo-Romanesque
and Byzantine churches and buildings.

The new department store in Stuttgart, Fig. 7. 7, is intended to relate to its context by
copying the gable roofs of the nearby Gothic buildings. This intention to relate clearly
results in bad mimicry, which cannot even present the sculptural qualities of the gables it
copies, not to mention concerns about the meaning, the relation to materials and so forth.

The new extension of Prado museum in Madrid, Fig. 7. 8, expresses a more sincere
intention to relate primarily to the old museum and secondarily to Madrid. It contrasts to
the old building in terms of materials but it manages to keep with vertical emphasis a very
delicate articulation.

Finally, a multi-storey garage building in Heidelberg, Fig. 7. 9, totally betrays its

function as a garage in order to keep up at the visual only level with the gables of the sur¬

rounding Mediaeval houses. Its volumetric articulation expresses an empty gesture to the
scale and texture of its context. Again it expresses a forced relationship between
aspects of the setting it intends to imitate, such as degraded volumetric configuration and

gables. Needless to say that in cases like these, where imitation is so superficial, there is
no intention to critically contrast to the architecture of the past. Whatever is interpreted as

contrast, for instance in this case, materials, texture, function and so forth, is only an

unthought meaningless juxtaposition.

The degree of openness to contextual interpretation, in evaluating new architecture vis

a vis its context, can best be assessed in experiencing new architecture and its context. Any
evaluation on visual grounds only is doomed to be partial and non-representative. As we

will discuss in the following pages, experience of new architecture can be broken down to
of
several aspects but the assemblagejthese aspects cannot do justice to the wholistic nature of
experience. Yet, it is also important, perhaps more so, to see how an interpretative process
can work for the evaluation of new architecture at the project stage. Equally with architec¬
ture as a finished edifice, a project can be subjected to evaluation and its performance
assessed, even at a provisional basis, in terms of its contextual relevance.

An architectural project is the only thing we can intepret and evaluate before the
actual realization of a building. The production of architecture can only be tested, con¬
trolled and formulated at the project stage. It can also best be modified and altered. Even
a
the intentions of the architect, expressed in the design or in^text, can be assessed according
to their contextual relevance and their referential depth.

The international architectural competition for Les Halles market in Paris, is a typical

183 -
example of the need for evaluation criteria to assess new architecture in old settings (14).
Charles Moore's intention to create a little French village clearly show how superficial con¬

textual consideration can be. Moore's project expresses a kitch attitute to Frenchness, to
Paris and to a market place. On the other hand Richard Ness's or Gaetano Pesce's
approaches show an attempt to address some deeper characteristic of the new market while
envisaging its future development.

New architecture in historic settings, if it is intended to relate to them, must be sym¬

bolic of its context in the broadest possible sense, in the sense that Goethe defined a sym¬

bol, open to the world. Symbolic potential thus relates more to a poetic ambiguity than to a

specific correspondence described by semiotics. Also Rossi, similarly to the conceptuali¬

zation of openess attempted here, advocates such an openness as an objective criterion of
beauty. He writes in his Scientific Autobiography:

Transcending specific analogies, I saw more and more clearly how much beauty
lies in the place where matter encounters different meanings. Nothing can be
beautiful, not a person, a thing, or a city, if it signifies only itself, indeed if it
signifies nothing but it own life. (15)

An inkblot can also be susceptible to several interpretations, but it is absurd to postu¬

late that every inkblot, like those of the Rorschach test in Psychology, is a work of art.
Diverse interpretations of an inkblot relate rather to the human diversity projected upon it,
The
than to the potentiality of the inkblot itself, ^several interpretations that an inkblot may be
susceptible of, lack a common denominator and a common source. In this study multi-
It
interpretability of new architecture cannot ^considered as an aesthetic merit unless there is
an interrelation between, or within, the diverse modes of understanding, interpretation and
evaluation, related to the context.

So far we have been seeking to address architecture as art and we have been pursu¬

ing that from a contextual perspective, i.e. as an intervention. In this sense new architecture
relating in a wholistic sense to a setting it is grafted into, neither reveals nor conceals,but
means to reverberate here the relevatory ambiguity of Delphic oracles. It constantly invites
and encourages interpretation in contextual terms. Its truth, its value as a work of art,
lies in the interpretations it can achieve. Again, interpretation is here conceived not as a
definite historical explanation, but as ontologically relevant to the interpreter.

Beauty is not something residing to it but it is achieved through the mediation of the
interpreter as a dialectician, as Plato had argued (16). In our conceptualization, new archi¬
tecture, or at another level the renewed context, is an object of play and not play itself. In

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t
order for play to be established a player is also needed. Play is important in its being
played. The potentiality of new architecture to enhance play is of fundamental importance
and our whole concern in this study. Human participation gives reason, purpose and value
to architecture.

We could even go so far as to say that the emotional response to creative architec¬
tural intervention is, on one hand the stimulus for the ludic process of interpretations, and
on the other a sort of precognition or intuitive pre-understanding of all the possible
interpretations it can stimulate. It is this direct addressing of the whole which can subse-
tha) are
quently be analysed in a diversity of interpretations^contextually meaningful.
This immediacy of experience is qualitatively different from each one of the various
contextual interpretations that can be achieved. Gadamer has provided an excellent
clarification of this point. In discussing the notion of erlebnis (experience), Gadamer traces
its relation to the older terms erleben and erlebte. We quote from Gadamer:

Erleben means primarily "to be still alive when something happens". From this
the word has a note of the immediacy with which something real is grasped -

unlike something of which one presumes to know, but the confirmation of

which through one's own experience is lacking,... But at the same time the form
das Erlebte is used to mean the permanent context of what is experienced. This
context is like a yield or a residue that acquires permanence, weight and
significance from out of the transience of experiencing. Both meanings obvi¬
ously lie behind the form erlebnis, both the immediate, which precedes all
interpretation, treatment, or communication, and merely offers a starting point
for interpretation and material for working, as well as its discovered yield, its
lasting residue (17).

Erlebnis ensures both the openiess of an entity which we experience and its manifold
manifestations in the various, contextually orientated, interpretations. It goes without saying
that it does not occur the other way round. Any analytically conceived system of interpre¬
tations cannot render an artefact emotionally powerful, otherwise any definite series of
justified symbolisms should be enough as an aesthetic criterion. It is impossible for any
series of interpretations to address a work of art as a whole, since* ^cannot overcome the
indefiniteness of contextual interpretations springing from it However, communication,
engagement and interpretation of new architecture at various levels related to its context,
can enhance its experience as a work of art, contextually derived but finally autonomous as
well.

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 In fact what we postulate in this study is not some sort of scientific hermeneutics
i.e.understanding and evaluating according to certain rules of interpretation, by exhausting
the power of the work of art in its analysis. We rather attempt to ensure and guide a her-
meneutical poetics, what Susan Sontag calls "erotics of art"(18). In this sense meaningful
does not refer to meaning as a secret message to be decoded, but rather as appealing to our

experience in the form of an ontologically positive ambiguity.

The reality of creative new architecture in reference to its indefinite contextual

interpretations can be paralleled to that of the reality of an object placed between two
parallel mirrors in reference to the infinity of its reflections on them. It could be said, that
the sum total of all the diverse reflections of the object equals the object itself. Yet, we can

only have a finititude of its reflections and although a definite number of them are enough
to suggest the existence of the object, they are still far from its reality since they cannot
overcome some more of its reflections.

Similarly, mutatis mutandis, creative new architecture in a given setting, emits

towards its context at various levels, indefinite associations, evocations and relations, paral¬
leled to the reflections of the previous example, generated by its reality as a contextual
being. Imitation of its context and contrast to it are, in our interpretation, the "mirrors"
through which new architecture is identified and differentiated from its context, imitating it
while criticizing it, presenting identity and difference to it, manifesting the dialectical
aspects of its being.

New and old are interpreted at various levels, exactly as reflectionsof the object are of
different orders i.e. reflection, reflection of a reflection and so forth. Each of the mirrors,

i.e. imitation and contrast, represents the entity under interpretation in a higher order than
its previous one. Transition from one order to another is a series of transformations within
an evasive, ludic process. Only the indefiniteness of the interpretations legitimize the reality
of the new architecture. Yet, every inteipretation leads, suggests and enhances the experi¬
ence of new architecture.

At this point we think that the Sufi motto,"the wise finds the one in the thousand
and the thousand in the one" (referring to the 1001 Arabian nights) expresses eloquently
the dialectical relation between the oneness of a setting and its power for inexhaustive
manifestations. To find the one in the thousand is the architect's task so that the new crea¬

tion will be rendered meaningful in a thousand ways.

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 CHAPTER EIGHT

POWER AND LIMITATIONS OF A THEORY

CONCERNING ARCHITECTURAL CREATION

8. 1. CONCLUSIONS :

DIALECTICAL HERMENEUTICS OF ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE

AS A THEORY OF/FOR CONTEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is more than its physical and formal appearance. Every single building,
or part of it, carries with it the time of its construction, the modes of its appropriation, the

changes it has been under and the socio-cultural events it has witnessed. As such, it partici¬
pates in a particular socio-cultural context and is characterized by particular qualities and

meanings which constitute its identity.

The context of a particular setting can be the best possible frame of reference for any
new architecture in it, if continuity in its development is required. New architecture is
necessarily measured against its context; the physical setting and the socio-cultural life in
it. If the contemporary internationalism has led to environments bereft of meaning, contex-
tualism seems to be the best way to re-endow architecture with a sense of belonging.

The previous chapters have contributed towards a theoretical framework concerning

the intepretation and evaluation of architectural change in general and of the relation
between new architecture and old in particular. Assuming that new architecture establishes
a real dialogue with its context, we sought to describe the characteristics and the potential
of such a relationship.

Dialectical hermeneutics, as elaborated in this study, evaluates architectural novelty

according to its potential to sustain an ever significant interaction with its context and an
ever fruitful dialogue with it. If such a dialectical process collapses, it will be a mark of
weakness and inadequacy on the part of new architecture to relate to its context.

Contextual engagement of new architecture can finally be of value not only for the
context but for its own significance as well. The offsprings of their dialogue can only be a

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renewed context and an anchored novelty at various levels of interpretation. In this thesis
we assume such a dialogue and in an abductive sense we use it to evaluate new architec¬
ture.

It is obvious that if such a theoretical framework contains any value at all in inter¬
preting architectural change, it could also be used to suggest and guide architectural inter¬
vention in its formation process. Evaluation occurs not only when architecture is encoun¬
tered as a finished object but also at every stage of the design process and it can

guide, shape and determine new architecture to a considerable degree.

In this study we conceive new architecture in an old setting like a seed and we
attempt to build into it all the ingredients of its context, so as to secure a dialogue and a
wholistic relation between new and old architecture. Contextual ingredients in new archi¬
tecture will lead neither to a replication of what is there already, nor to some inappropriate
novelty, based on contextually irrelevant ideas. The need for change, a contextual
ingredient itself, will secure that something new will come out, while the rest of the
ingredients, relating to the bonds between people and their environment, will render archi¬
tectural novelty communicative, familiar and significant. In this way new architecture will
be an offspring - • of its context, however different from it

In dealing with the theoretical aspects of architecture in this study, it has been
somehow assumed that if the ideal project for a place is the best possible, then the real
building will be the best possible as well.

The functional efficiency of architecture, the means of construction, the economics

and the client are some of the decisive filters through which architecture, however well
informed from theory and however perfect in its conception, has to pass through in order
to comply with its requirements.

Nevertheless, if the best possible project for a site has been reached. not only the
that
contextual
ingredientSjhave been built into it, but also all modifications, alterations and
revisions, in the light of practical and circumstantial requirements, will be carried out

according to the characteristics of its ideal conceptualization.

In our study we have subordinated dialectical opposition between new and old archi¬
tecture at various levels to the unity, the identity and the life of a particular setting con¬
sidered as the "third term" for every dialectical opposition in it. Dialectical opposition has
been seen against the harmonious coexistence of old and new in a meaningful environment
Beyond all dialectics there is an implicit belief that people should live together, communi¬
cate and interact in a meaningful way with the built environment they live in. The

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supremacy of such an intention vis a vis the alienation and fragmentation of human life
cannot be proved. Life in all its manifestations is implicity considered as a positive
phenomenon beyond the life-death dialectical opposition, which is the ultimate one. The
third term of dialectics, the maintenance of life for a setting, is informed by such an inten¬
tion or a moral bias. This belief penetrates the whole study, and the dialectic method on

which the study is based (1). At this point, the positiveness of the life becomes the ulti¬
mate criterion for the evaluation of new architecture.

8. 2. CONTEXTUAL LIMITS AND ARCHITECTURAL CREATION

This study has suggested dialectical hermeneutics as a method of interpretation and

evaluation of new architecture in old settings. Within such a theoretical framework it is
obvious that new architecture in a setting cannot be anything. The context presents certain
limits towards absorbing novelties. These limits should not be considered as restraints,
reducing the spectrum of creative intervention but rather as enabling agents. A given set¬
ting is what it is due to these limits, which define its identity negatively and positively, i.e.
as what it is and as what it is not. These limits make a setting particular, idiosyncratic and
real. Contextual consideration does not tether architectural creation, but rather enhances it

by endowing it with socio-cultural relevance and significance.

Every context is a living entity, constantly developing and as such it defies any

analytical approach. Yet, even as a fictional entity - of which we know its characteristics
rather than itself - it makes sense to reveal it and renew it There is a potential in every

context, what Louis Kahn described as what "it wants to be"; yet there is no single,
predetermined way of developing for it. Architectural renewal may follow several paths
provided that they are contextually orientated. Otherwise, irrelevant development might
ensue.

Gyorgy Doczi in his study "The Power of Limits" investigates some issues related to
the above remarks (2). In examining the properties of geometrical patterns he argues that
although a pattern is a forming process operating within strict limits, it creates limitless
varieties of shape and harmonies. In this sense he verifies once again the Pythagorean epi¬
gram "limits give form to the limitless" (3).

In designing a new building in an old setting, restraints and limits to the project come
not only from the Building Regulations, the client, the structure, the materials and so forth,
but also from the idea - whether it is contextually orientated or not - about how it should
be done. If one wants to build two rows of houses alongside a river and the basic idea

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is to provide a view to to the river for everyone, then certain limits arise as to the height of
the houses in the front row.

Limits imposed by contextual characteristics do not limit creativity but rather increase
it as they turn the quantitatively possible into the qualitatively legitimate and appropriate.
There can be more solutions springing out from the depths of a coherent identity than
theoretically conceived in vacuum. If no contextual limits are acknowledged, then the
assumed theoretical multiplicity of solutions for a particular case degenerate in a restricted,
tautological typology. If contextual values are not acknowledged, there is no reason to

differentiate new architecture from place to place, or if there is such a differentiation, for
the sake of the avant-garde requirements of the architectural profession, it is equally mean¬

ingless or in any case inadequate. As was the case with the Modern Movement in archi¬
tecture, the original intention for freedom, finally resulted in standardization, ecumenism
and the subsequent commercial exploitation of the international ideal (4).

As with the notion of tradition in Gadamer's theory, examined in Chapter Five, the
contextual limits are enabling for new architecture, not prohibiting. Local, contextual res¬
traints increase creativity because they discourage ready-made solutions. So, there is an

oxymoron here because limits are rather enabling than limiting, or rather are enabling
because they limit.

8. 3. LIMITS AND PROSPECTS OF CONTEXTUALISM

Contextualism, as a theoretical framework and a strategy for design is based on cer¬

tain assumption and bears several implications for the contemporary architectural debate. It
attempts to break down the universal character of modernism as an unquestionable way for
architectural development worldwide. It shows a disillusion with the prophecies of moder¬
nity as a bearer of an intelligible order to enhance social progress. Contextualism is clearly
orientated towards the appropriation of the past.

It claims the importance of the locally cultivated and addresses the particular identity of a
place by attempting to realize an ever-renascent unity. Yet, such claims often raise some
difficulties.

Appropriation of the past can often be slavish, nostalgic or even politically

dangerous. Contextualism can often be associated with ill-defined nationalism, cultural iso¬
lation or the distortion of history and political exploitation. The past can be treated as a
lifeless repository of architectural forms and meanings deprived of its dynamics and

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contextualisra can enhance an idealization of the past or its selective appreciation at the
expense of current development.

Contextualism might lead to architectural development serving the past more than the
present, not to mention its adoption as a strategy for historic preservation. However good
use of contextualism one could guarantee, it will be problematic if it is adopted as a new

dogma (5).

The Italian architect and theorist Vittorio Gregotti in a thoughtful article dealing with
the renewal of Venice provides some succinct points about contextualism (6). Although he
acknowledges its value vis a vis the problem arising from the renewal of historic cities and
its contribution to the contemporary architectural debate, he clarifies some warnings:

Contextualism is too often interpreted as a search for the "spirit" of the place,
purged of all dialectic and historical contradiction and frozen at a moment

regarded as typical in its development - a sort of mental construct of the place.

Furthermore it is essential to disentangle contextualism from the prejudices
associated with pure conservation or the ideal reconstruction of a world inha¬
bited by the "noble savage". (7)

Gregotti conceives the dialectics between new and old architecture in a Marxian
sense, i.e. as a constant conflict with no intention for unity and continuity between them
until alienation is totally expunged (8). Nevertheless, he argues in a similar vain to. this
thesis that new architecture in specific environment should attempt a modification of
the existing environment rather than total planning strategies. Despite the fact that Gregotti
interprets the past as a series of conflicts, he argues that new architecture should relate to it
through its context.

8. 4. ARTIST VERSUS THEORETICIAN:

INTERPRETATION THROUGH CREATION

Interpretation and evaluation of new architecture in an existing setting or of a setting

vis a vis a specific project for its renewal is one thing and creative architectural interven¬
tion in it another. In order to build an appropriate new building in a setting, a creative
genius is also needed. The fusion between new and old in a successful intervention is a
creative act beyond the interpretation of a setting, however adequate that would be. An
intuitive grasp of the essence of a particular setting is also necessary, far from any
methodic understanding of it.

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 Every context has to be addressed as one, a unity, even if in the sense of a narrative
as

or^a fictional unity, vis a vis new architecture in it, because any change in it will neces¬
sarily affect it as a whole. Conversely, every new building has to be treated as an entity in
itself vis a vis its contextual anchorage, because it is intended to relate to its context and be
capable of renewingL|as a whole. The identity of a setting cannot be pinned down and
described. A setting is an entity in process and as such it can only be addressed as a whole
by an architectural intervention which will relate at indefinite levels with it. This
indefiniteness of describable levels of association is the best way to address what finally is
an undefinable identity.

The gap between the wholistic nature of contextual identity and its partial interpreta¬
tions can only be bridged by creative intervention. In this case understanding a particular
problem of architectural renewal in a given setting and response to it are one process. We
can call this process interpretation through creation. Although creative intervention cannot
be rationalized, there is still a need for a theoretical framework to guide reflection or intui-
Ihe
tive understanding
andj testing of ideas. Such a theoretical framework cannot substitute
r &
lor architectural creation, but it can evaluate it in its formation process. If providesjsort of
negative definition of what appropriate new architecture for a given setting should be. A
theory can only provide an answer to what is not a relevant new architecture in a given
setting; it remains the task of the architect to create it Otherwise theories can only suggest
blueprints for architectural practice.

In fact, interpretation and intervention are not so remote as one might think. In
Chapter Five we discussed already that understanding, interpretation and application are an

indivisible trinity. They interact all the way during the whole process of architectural crea¬

tion and limit, define and shape any novelty to be introduced in a given setting. The
inteipretation process does not stop to give its place to architectural praxis, but remains
embedded in it. This unity between interpretation and application renders a theoretical
framework useful to interpret, evaluate and guide architectural practice.

We have been so far interpreting and evaluating new architecture in old settings by
following a methodic course, namely interpreting in dialectical terms at a diversity of archi¬
tectural aspects. This does not imply that the architect has thought or has to think in such a
way in order to produce an appropriate new architecture for a specific location. Successful
architectural intervention can generate rational interpretation but no systematic way can be
sufficient for its creation. Any conceptual approach cannot overcome the infinity of rational
interpretations that creative new architecture is capable of generating.

Every theoretical conceptualization has rather to be considered as a tool extending the

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potential of creativity and not as a substitute for it. Contextual consideration will help the
architect to critically appraise and evaluate a project, but it cannot, and it should not, pro¬
vide a blueprint for creative intervention. No theory can produce creative solutions, but on

the other hand a theoretical framework can always help to enhance them.

Theoretical constructions cannot, by definition, approach the fact of an entity and for
this reason they are inadequate as sources of art in themselves. Interpretation through crea¬
tion avoids the inadequacies of any theoretical, systematic approach and addresses an entity
directly and as a whole, yet we can make sense out of it only in some sort of systematic
LsonethitQS is
conceptualization. - ■!? The inspiration of the artistyand another(his critical ability
to reflect on it in the continuous process of shaping it. Matisse referred to this point when
he said:

When painting, an artist must be believing that he is imitating nature. But when
he stands back to think, he must use abstraction. (9)

In Chapter Seven we discussed how the differences between theoretical and artistic
intepretation relates directly to the way we experience things. Beyond the comprehensible
and analyzable dialectic way of conceptualizing, sometimes it is a direct address of the whole
that leads us to grasp the true nature of things. It is as if we preunderstand its wholistic
nature, the fact of it, before intelligibly analyzing it. In such cases we envisage the unity
and the complementarity underlying and projected in the dialectics of the opposites. Plato
has expressed this point eloquently in his LAWS and appropriately resumes the difference
between theoria and praxis:

There is, O lawgiver; an ancient saying - constantly repeated by ourselves and

endorsed by everyone else - that whenever a poet is seated on the Muse's tri¬
pod, he is not in his senses, but resembles a fountain, which gives free course
to the upward rush of water; and, since his art consists in imitation, he is com¬

pelled often to contradict himself..., and he knows not which of these contradic¬
tory utterances is true. But it is not possible for the lawgiver in his law thus to

compose two statements about a single matter; but he must always publish one

single statement about onematter.(lO)

The theoretical framework proposed in this study claims its values and derives its
power not from some unshakeable logic of objective foundation, but rather from a faith. As
such, the theory proposed in this thesis is susceptible to change in view of a more adequate
one or/and, in any case,may be overruled by architectural practice. What it will have

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 achieved by then, nevertheless, is to discourage any less adequate theoretical
approach that will not do justice to the nature of human experience of the built environ¬
ment in particular, and to the nature of human life in general. This theoretical approach, as

any, should be rather left open to be surpassed by creative architectural practice, as any

theory which "wants" to justify its role must give way to life (11).

8. 5. FROM THEORY TO PRAXIS: THE SEARCH FOR VALUES

It is in the nature of any theory, as a construction of the human mind, manifested in

the form of rational explanation or theoretical formulation or speculation, to be double
edged. The pre-Socratic philosophers were the first to formulate this theoretical view (12).
Praxis instead, meaning action and the practice of a theory, cannot but be one-sided, even

if it can be ex post facto conceptualized as double-sided. A theory can go as far as to ack¬

nowledge the antithetical aspects of life, while every praxis expresses a particular outcome
of the interaction of the opposites, which characterizes human life and every life (13).

In the reality of human life it might seem that dialectics of the opposites, the theoreti¬
cal basis of this study, is a fictional theoretical framework. So it is, by being a conceptual
schema. Theory and praxis themselves are in dialectical opposition seeking their fulfillment
only in their mutual interdependence and interaction (14). There cannot be praxis without
theory and there cannot be theory without praxis, however differently we conceptualize of
both in diverse contexts in place and time.

Telos, aim and purpose, appears to be the "third term" of dialectical opposition
between theory and praxis (15). A particular purpose "moves" the dialectics towards a

specific end, and stimulates purposeful theorizing and action based on a theory. Telos is the
. ultimate catalyst for dialectics to operate and produce meaning.

By adopting dialectics as the basis for theorizing about the relation of new architec¬
ture to old, we presuppose, as the pre-Socratics did, the ultimate connectedness, interrela¬
tion and interdependence of all things in a unified world view. Such an assumption, in
turn, implies a moral attitude behind the intention to formulate a theoretical framework to
guide architectural practice. Because of the double face of truth, we need something exter¬
nal to it in order to justify the choice. A code of morality, a social rule or scheme for
cooperation and an intention towards maximizing it can provide such criteria (16). In the
track of some morality, dialectics can be articulated as an open-ended inquiry, yet ever
meaningful.

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 Morality has always been connected with architecture as with every other human
activity and inevitably so. Romaldo Giurgola in a thoughtful article notes:

Aesthetics and ethics were [for the Classical Greeks] inextricably joined in the
same practical system which provided the basis both for the construction of
buildings and the creation of works of art. In such a synthesis of theory and
practice, what could be more self-conscious than the Pythagorean conception of
symmetria, a divine harmony or balance in which to kallos encompassed both
the beautiful and the good?...In contemporary terms, the need to talk about the
possible meaning of such a connection is urgent, in order that our architecture
might acquire wider terms of reference than that provided by its form or by its
content alone! (17)

Giurgola clearly stresses that the meeting point between theory and practice is a

morality relating to both; inherent in theory and guiding practice. Throughout this study the
conviction of a significant architecture has been such a moral assumption. A theoretical
framework towards informing architectural practice should relate architecture to something
broader than itself. A theory of architecture should tell us something about things outside
architecture as well (18).

Architectural practice and theory alike have been exhausted in a self-referential

game which has resulted to a mere tautology. Too much concentration upon the architec¬
tural object has resulted in a poorer and fragmented experience of the built environment.
Instead, it is here suggested to view architecture as a process convivial to the life process
in its setting, a field of continuous evolution.

J.Habraken has suggested that the process of architectural development should be

conceived as cultivation of the built environment rather than making objects (19). Despite
the fact that architecture is a finite act, it should rather be envisaged as a process of con¬

tinuous interaction with its environment and reflecting the full spectrum of human experi¬
ence. Morality in architecture, conscious or not on the part of the architect and implicit or
explicit in the built environment, provides the criteria for its value judgement. However
transient or culture bound these value criteria may be, they are the means to live by a
meaningful, life-enhancing environment. Moral values along with aesthetic ones should be
basic tools to guide architectural creation.

Questions concerning the identity of a setting, a hierarchy of its characteristics vis a

vis a specific new project in it and its potentiality for change, can only be answered by a
critical assessment of locally cultivated environment, physically and culturally. Thus, new

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 architecture in a setting remains contextually informed and open to intepretation at the
same time.

8. 6. A THEORY OR NO THEORY?

It might be argued that architecture defies theorizing about it. We could accept it, if
that was possible. But in fact, architecture has always been informed by specific principles
and/or a vision of life. Today architecture is already theory-loaded and by inadequate
theories too. Theories change as swiftly as fashion proving their lack of a broader perspec¬
tive to inform architectural practice. In such a situation architects cannot be naive claiming
that they have no theory or/and they do not need one (20).

We can construct theories as

easily as buildings or, perhaps more easily since we do
not even have to consider gravity . i Even when we seek for a theory, this is another
theory too; the theory that we need a theory. Moreover, sometimes we are even unaware of
the theories we base our assumptions on. Theories of architecture based on statistics or

psychological perception are two examples. On the other hand we certainly need a theoret¬
ical framework and we have to look for it. Even if it is finally inevitable to abide with
some set of ideas and beliefs , it is of particular importance to search for the most adequate
one vis a vis the needs of human life.

This thesis claims that theories of architecture, like buildings, should be cultivated
locally and change along with each particular ■, socio-cultural development. This
is as far as any general theory of contextual architecture can go. Theory thus is here con¬
ceived as a speculative field. It is not falsifiable - because there is no logical meta-system
to falsify it - yet it is useful to guide creative architectural practice.

No other art exercises such an influence over our lives, as architecture does. Music,

painting and sculpture, to mention here only the traditional division of the arts, can be
experienced according to our will; architecture is the unavoidable art of everyday life. A
theory of/for architecture must relate to fife as a whole and it is in this sense that philoso¬
phy can provide useful insights for the proper understanding of architectural problems and
an appropriate response to them and to architectural problems. Yet, there is a danger
in architecture being over-conceptual and idealized. Architectural practice is finally the only
reason for the existence of any architectural theory and the only touchstone for Its •
evaluation.

196 -
 NOTES AND REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE: RELATING NEW ARCHITECTURE TO OLD:

THE PROBLEM AND THE BACKGROUND

1) Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, London: Edward Arnold,
1977, p. 193.

2) Michael Manser, president RIBA, annual speech, 1986.

3) Donald Home, The Great Museum: The Re-presentation of History, London: Pluto
Press, 1984.

4) Ibid., p. 117.

5) William Bell Dinsmoor, The Architecture of Ancient Greece, London: B. T. Batsford,

3rd edition 1950, p. 54.

6) E. R. Dodds, The Ancient Concept of Progress and Other Essays on Greek Literature
and Belief, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1973, pp. 1-25.

7) J. G. Pockock, The Origins of Study of the Past: a Comparative Approach, in: Com¬
parative Studies in Society and History, Cambridge University Press, vol.IV, 1961-62, p.
219 ff.

8) Charles W. Moore, Hadrian's villa in: PERSPECTA, no 6, MIT Press, 1960, pp. 16-27.

9) Manfredo Tafuri, Theories and History of Architecture, London: Granada 1980, pp. 14-
15.

10) Ignasi de Sola Morales, Theories of Architectonic Intervention, in QUADERNS, no

155, 1982, p. 22 (English translation).

11) Ibid., p. 23.

12) Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, London:

Academy Editions, 1979, pp. 37-41.

13) ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, vol. 49, no 5-6, 1979, London: Academy Editions.

14) Sir John Summerson, The Past in the Future, in: Heavenly Mansions and Other Essays
on Architecture, London: Norton Library, 1963, p. 219.

15) Manfredo Tafuri, op. cit., p. 15.

16) The notion of dialectics in relation to Marx's dialectics, is discussed in APPENDIX I.

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17) Viollet le Due, ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, no 3-4, 1980.

18) Camillo Boito, I Restauratori, Firenze: 1884. Also, Camillo Boito, I nostri vecchi
monumenti. Conservare o restaurare, Nuova Anthologia, vol. LXXXVII, 1886, pp. 480-

506. For the impact of restoration theory on architecture, see: Architecture as Reparation:
Notes on restoration in architecture, in: LOTUS 46, 2/1985, pp. 117-22.

19) The evolution of attitudes towards the architecture of the past are documented in: A.
Manousi-Vakalopoulou, Report to ICOMOS, TECHNIKA CHRONIKA (In Greek), vol. 4,
no 3, 1984.

20) Peter Collins, Changing Ideals in Modem Architecture, London: Faber & Faber, 1965,
Chapter Three: The Influence of the Picturesque, especially pp. 49-54.

21) Ibid., p. 54.

22) A. W. N. Pugin, Contrasts, London, 1836.

23) Joseph Rykwert, Gottfried Semper and the problem of style, in: ARCHITECTURAL
DESIGN, vol. 51, no 6-7, 1981, pp. 11-15.

24) M.H. Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic theory and the critical tradition,
Oxford University Press, 1974 (c/1953).

25) Ignasi de Sola-Morales, Toward a Modem Museum: From Riegl to Giedion, in OPPO¬
SITIONS, N.Y. Rizzoli, vol.25, 1982, pp. 69-77.

26) Ibid., p. 75.

27) Alois Riegl, The Modem Cult of Monuments: Its character and its origin, translated by
Kurt W. Forster and Diane Ghirardo, in: OPPOSITIONS, N.Y.: Rizzoli, vol. 25, 1982, pp.
21-51.

28) Ibid., p. 38.

29) The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer succintly observes that current architec¬
ture and the orientation of archaeological curiosity are interrelated ( complementary? ) hor¬
izons at every particular period. Storie Paraflele, in DOMUS, no 670, Marzo 1986, p. 28.

30) El Lissitzky, Russia: an architecture for world revolution, translated by Eric Dluhosch,
MIT Press, 1984 (c/1970) (originally published in German by Verlag in 1930), pp. 50-51.

31) Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal, in Colin
Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, MIT Press 1976, pp. 159-83.

32) El Lissitzky, op. tit., p. 52.

33) Ignasi de Sola-Morales, From Contrast to Analogy: Developments in the Concept of

Architectural Intervention, in LOTUS, vol.46, no 2/1985, p. 37.

34) Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank
Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, MIT Press, 1982 (c/1977), pp. 209-210.

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35)LARCHITECTURE D'AUJOURD'HUI, 233/June 1986, p. XXVIII.

36) Alan Colquhoun, Conflitti ideologici del Modemo (Ideological conflicts of the Modern
), in: CASABELLA, no 520-521, 1-2/1986, pp. 11-18.

37) Giancarlo de Carlo, Beyond Postmodernism, preface in C. Richard Hatch, The Scope
of Social Architecture, NewJersey, 1984, pp. vi-vii.

38) Aldo Van Eyck, in ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 12, vol. xxxii, Dec. 1962, p. 560.

39) Christian Norberg-Schulz, Towards an Authentic Architecture, in: The Presence of the
Past, first Biennale, Venice: 1980, p. 21.

CHAPTER TWO: THE REHABILITATION OF IMITATION:

A REVIEW OF THEORIES CONCERNING THE RELATION
OF NEW ARCHITECTURE TO HISTORIC SETTINGS

1) Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, N.Y.: The Museum of

Modern Art, Papers in Architecture, no 1, 1966.

2) Ibid., p. 22.

3) Ibid., p. 23.

4) Le Corbusier, Toward a new architecture, translated by Frederick Etchells, London: The

Architectural Press, 1982 (c/1927), p. 188.

5) Venturi, op. cit., p. 25.

6) Ibid., p. 31.

7) Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, MIT Press, 1982.

8) Pierre Nora, Entre Memoire et Histoire, cited in: David Lowenthal: The Past is a
Foreign Country, Cambridge University Press, 1985.

9) P.G.Raman, Aldo Rossi and the Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in: EDINBURGH
ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH, vol. 12, 1985, pp. 25-42.

10) Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, op. cit., p. 179.

11) Aldo Rossi, Selected Writings and Projects, London: Blue Studio, 1983, p. 49.

12) Ibid.

13) Aldo Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography, MIT Press, 1981, p. 16.

14) Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, op. cit., p. 5.

15) Aldo Rossi, Selected Writings and Projects, op. cit., p. 49.

16) Aldo Rossi, Scientific Autobiography, op. cit., p. 38.

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17) Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, in: The Mathematics of the Ideal
Villa and Other
Essays, MIT Press, 1976, pp. 1-27.

18) The main theoretical text is: Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage City, MIT Press,
1985 (c/1978). For projects and developments on the theory of Collage City see: THE
CORNELL JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE.

19) Thomas Schumacher, Ideals and Deformation, in: CASABELLA, no 104, 1971.

20) Ibid.

21) Wayne C. Cooper, The Figure / Grounds, in: THE CORNELL JOURNAL OF
ARCHITECTURE, no 2, Fall 1983, pp. 42-53.

22) C. Rowe and F. Koetter, Collage City, op. cit., p. 4.

23) Ibid., p. 6.

24) Ibid., p. 8.

25) C. Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, op. cit., p. 212.

26) Ibid., p. 216.

27) Collage City, op. cit., p. 49.

28) Ibid., p. 103.

29) Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Campus Martius, 1762.

30) C. Rowe and F. Koetter, Collage City, op. cit., p. 121.

31) Ibid., p. 145.

32) Nelson Goodman, in DOMUS, no 672, May 1986, pp. 17-28.

33) Kevin Lynch, Theory of Good City Form, The MIT Press, 1981, p. 141.

34) Project in Buffalo, in: THE CORNELL JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE, no 2, Fall

1983, pp. 88-91.

35) See for instance: Paris Biennale: Urbanity, in: ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, no 11-
12, 1980.

CHAPTER THREE: THE IMITATION - CONTRAST DIALECTICS

IN RELATING NEW ARCHITECTURE TO OLD SETTINGS

1) For the intentional character of imitation see: "by imitation I understand nothing more
than an action, the purpose of which is to produce something similar to another thing" and

"there can be no imitation unless there is the intent to produce something similar to another
thing", in: Johann Elias Shlegel, On imitation and other essays, translated by Allen McCor-
mick, Bobbs-Merrill: The Library of Liberal Arts, 1965, pp. 4, 15.

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2) Cited in: Wladyslaw Tataritiewicz, History of Aesthetics, vol. 1 Ancient Aesthetics,
edited by J. Harrel, Warszawa: PWN- Polish Scientific Publishers and The Hague and
Paris: MOUTON, 1970, pp. 16-17 ( referring to the work of H. Koller ). In Homeric
hymns it means "imitation of voice" ( LOEB Classical library, Homeric hymn III: To
Delian Apollo 162 / p. 336 ). In Delian hymns and in Pindar mimesis is a dance ( Tatar-
kiewicz, ibid., p. 17 ).

3) Dionysian cult remained throughout the Classical period in all massive rituals in contrast
to the Apollinian. See: E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1951, chap. 3: The blessing of madness. See also his account of Bacchic
mimetic dances in n. 87, p. 95. ( Also A. Delatte in Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., p. 17 ).

4) Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., p. 17.

5) Beardsley writes that Herodotus used the term "mimesis" to describe the imitation of
dead Egyptians by wooden statues although such an early use of mimesis as representation
seems rather implausible. See: Monroe C. Beardsley, Aesthetics from Classical Greece to
the present, University of Alabama press, 1982 (c/ 1966), p. 24. Tatarkiewicz draws a clear
distinction between the sepatate kinds of art in ancient Greece. The expressive arts ( poe¬
try, music, dance ) and the constructive ones ( architecture, sculpture, painting ). This dis¬
tinction is different from Nietzche's qualitative differentiation between Apollinian and
Dionysian, which penetrated all arts. See: Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., pp. 15 ff.

6) I. Sycoutris clarifies the notion of nature by stressing that nature for ancient Greeks
must be understood as something active and spiritual. It was sort of spiritual energy in con¬
stant change. It was "natura naturans" and not "natura naturata". See: I. Sycoutris, Intro¬
duction to Aristotle>s poetics in: Simos Menardos, Aristotle's poetics with an introduction
and interpretation by I. Sycoutris, Academy of Athens: Greek Library no 2, Athens: HES-
TIA, 1938, p. 58*. See also for the notion of nature: R. G. Collingwood, The idea of
nature, Oxford University Press, 1976 (c/1945), pp. 30 ff.

7) Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., pp. 79, 89-90. Mimeisthai in Democritus terms means "ought to
be", "pretend to be" and implies the inferiority of "mimeisthai" to nature's true being. See
M. C. Beardsley, op. cit., p. 24.

8) Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., pp. 80-89.

9) Ibid., p. 83.

10) Ibid., p. 143.

11) Ibid., p. 98.

12) Ibid., p. 107.

13) Ibid., p. 102.

14) Ibid., pp. 103-104.

15) Manolis Andronikos, Plato and art (In Greek), Athens: Nepheli, 1984.

16) Richard Robinson, Plato's Earlier Dialectic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953.

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17) M. Andronikos, op. cit., p. 23.

18) Ibid., p. 24, n. 6.

19) Panofsky intelligently remarks that it is the dialectician who is entrusted with the
dialectics of revealing the world of "ideas". See: Erwin Panofsky, Idea: A concept in art
theory, translated by J. S. Peake, N.Y.: Harper & Row (Icon editions), 1968 (c/1924), p.
6.

20) Plato, Republic X 596 d-e.

21) Plato, Cratylus 432 c-d. See: M. Andronikos, op. cit., p. 55, n. 34 - p. 62, n. 58 - p.
63, n. 62.

22) Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., pp. 121-122.

23) Ibid., pp. 121-123.

24) Plato, Cratylus 439 a.

25) Andronikos, op. cit., p. 56.

26) Ibid., p. 60, n. 49.

27) Ibid., p. 62.

28) Ibid., p. 63 - p. 76, n. 96. Plato's PHAEDO 61, p. 90, n. 8.

29) Ibid., p. 80, nn. 8,11.

30) Ibid., p. 83, nn. 23-24 and p. 84, n. 29.

31) Ibid., p. 82, n. 16.

32) For the notion of play as higher seriousness see: Francis Sparshott, The Theory of the
Arts, Princeton University Press, 1982, p. 61.

33) Panofsky, op. cit., p. 126 and p. 81, n. 15.

34) Aristotle: PHYSICS II.2, 194 a 20 and METEOROLOGY IV.3.

35) Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., p. 157.

36) Ibid., p. 157.

37) It is in this sense that art differs from the typical and the abstract general. See:
Sycoutris, op. cit., p. 63*. Also Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., p. 158 and p. 159, frag. 15.

38) Sycoutris, op. cit., p. 81*.

39) Menardos, op. cit., p. 44.

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40) Aristotle: Metaphysics, 981 a 15.

41) Sycoutris, op. cit., pp. 60* - 67* and p. 147, n. 2.

42) Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, London: Sheed & Ward, 1975 (c/1960), p.
371.

43) Ibid., p. 103.

44) Ibid., p. 104 and Tataritiewicz, op. cit., p. 140.

45) Kant by rejecting "the thing in itself', was forced to reject aesthetics as knowledge and
mimesis lost its significance. See : Gadamer, op. cit., p. 104. See also : Panofsky, op. cit.,
p. 126.

46) Panofsky, op. cit, pp. 5-6. Also p. 12, for the relation between idea and logos ( reason
and intellect).

47) Sycoutris, op. cit, pp. 48*,67*.

48) Tataikiewicz, op. cit., pp. 289-294, fir. 22 and p. 298, fr. 2.

49) Ibid., p. 290. Also Panofsky, op. cit., p. 12.

50) Allen McCormick's introduction to J. E. Shlegel, op. cit., p. IX.

51) Ibid., pp. XVI, IX, XI.

52) Ibid., pp. 21-23.

53) See for instance: Rafael Moneo, On Typology, in: OPPOSITIONS, Summer 1978: 13,
MIT press. For a brief historical account on the notion of type in
architectural thought see:
Dina Demiri, The notion of type in architectural thought in: Edinburgh Architectural
Research 10, 1983.

54) Quatremere de Quincy, Encyclopedic Methodique, vol. II, Paris : 1825, IMITATION
(pp. 543-546). (My translation).

55) R. D. Archer-Hind, The Timaeus of Plato, London: Macmillan, 1888, p. 62, Plato's
Timaeus 19 d.

56) Andronikos, op. cit., pp. 73-74.

57) Tataikiewicz, op. cit., pp. 97-98 and p. 105, fr. 7.

58) See for instance : R. Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Modem Architecture,
and Brent C. Brolin, The Failure of Modem Architecture, N.Y.: Van Nostrand Reinhold,
1976.

59) Susanne Langer, Feeling and Form, N.Y.: Charles Scribners & Sons, 1953.

60) It is in this sense that Drama in ancient Greece should aim to express the katholou, an

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ordered and logically coherent whole, because it had to address in an intimate and simul¬
taneous way all the different people of the audience. Aristotle's katholou has only a logical
existence ascribing a limit and a telos ( aim ) to mimesis, conceived as a praxis ( action )
of everyday life. See : Sycoutris, op. cit., pp. 61* - 67*.

61) Hintikka, Waterlow and Judson provide a useful discussion of the notions of infinite
and possible : Chapter Seven, note 10.

62) Tataikiewicz, op. cit., p. 103.

63) Nelson Goodman, Reality Remade, in: Joseph Margolis (Ed.), Philosophy looks at the
arts: contemporary readings in Aesthetics, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978, p.
226.

64) See in Chapter Five Paul Ricoeur's designation of levels of interpretation.

65) Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: the perspective of experience, London: Edward Arnold,
1977, chap. 13: Time and Place, and particularly pp. 190-191.

66) See: Conservation and rehabilitation of traditional buildings and urban complexes,
Technical Chamber of Greece, Thessaloniki, 1982, and particularly p. 53 about the build¬
ing regulations for the islands of Myconos and Hydra.

67) Leaflet for the projects of Unit Seven at the Architectural Association.

68) Barbara Rose, Claes Oldenburg, N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art, 1969, pp. 103-114.

69) The same problem arises when archaelogists have to destroy existing settings in order
to carry out excavation or even when archaeological remains of a particular period have to
be destroyed in favour of earlier or more interesting historically ones, where no safe cri¬
terion for evaluation applies.

70) Sycoutris, op. cit., p. 62* and note 9.

71) See Appendix I.

72) Tatarkiewicz, op. cit., p. 89.

73) Bruno Zevi, Where is modern architecture going?, in: GA Document 3, Tokyo: Ada
Edita, Winter 1981.

74) Heracleitus, fragment 51. For an excellent intepretation see: Kostas Axelos, Heracleitus
and Philosophy (Greek translation of the original French edition of 1962), Athens: Eksan-
das, 1974, pp. 47-49.

Contrast, as treated in this thesis, relates also to Jaques Derrida's differance, which in mm
relates to the act of creating difference and to creating reference. So, contrast is not the
result of lack of imitation but an attitude of ontological significance. See: Jacques Derrida,
"Differance", in: Margins of Philosophy, transl. by Alan Bass, Chicago University Press,
1982.

For the notion of ontological difference, i.e. imitation and difference as aspects of the iden¬
tity of being see:

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Martin Heidegger, Identity and Difference, transl. by Joan Stambaugh, N.Y.: Harper &
Row, 1969.
Gianni Vattimo, Le Avventure della Differenza, Milano: Gauzanti, 1980, cap. VI:
DifferenzaOntologica.
Jacques Taminiaux, Dialectic and Difference: Finitude in Modem Thought, New Jersey:
Macmillan, Humanities Press, 1985, especially pp. 79-90.

75) Peter F. Smith, The Syntax of Cities, London: Hutchinson, 1977, chap. 29: The Urban
Contrast, pp. 248-252.

76) Hippolyte M. Rigault, Histoire de la Querelle des Anciens et des Modemes, Paris:
Librairie de la Hachette, 1856.

77) Weinsheimer, op. ciL, p. 71.

78) See Appendix I.

79) Patrice Goulet, La troisieme generation ou le retour a la parole, in:[ARCHITECTURE

D'AUJOURD* HUI, no 233, June 1984.

80) P.F.Smith, op. ciL, passim.

81) Francis Strauven, The Urban Conjugation of Functionalist Architecture, in: Aldo Van
Eyck, Amsterdam: Stichting women, 1982.

CHAPTER FOUR: TOWARDS A DIALECTIC CONCEPTUALIZATION OF TIME

IN THE MAN - MADE ENVIRONMENT

1) The French encyclopaedists were the first to conceive history as such.

2) A similar approach is adopted in developmental psychology by Klaus F. Riegel. Riegel

discusses the dialectics between absolute, objective and personal, subjective time for the
sake of personal time, in: Klaus F. Riegel, Toward a dialectic interpretation of time and
change, cited in: Bernard S. Gorman & Allen E. Wessman, The personal experience of
time, N.Y.: Plenum Press, 1977. A profound discussion of time's qualification in social
terms is in: Richard H. Grathoff, The structure of social inconsistencies: A contribution to

a unified
theory of play, game and social activity, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970,
chap. 5. A dialectic consideration of time is also adopted by Elliott Jaques who conceptu¬
alizes time as 2-dimensional in: Elliott Jaques, The form of time, London: Heinemann,
1982.

3) As quoted in A. Smithson (ed.), Team 10 Primer, London: Studio Vista, 1968, p. 101.

4) Rene' Gue'non,
The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, transl. by lord North-
bourne, London: Luzac & Company, 1953, chap. V. The qualitative determinations of time,
p. 52.

5) Even the quantitative aspect of time, time as undifferentiated temporal passage, is

different between several societies whether that is consciously acknowledged or not.
Western societies have adopted the clock-time while in agricultural societies celestial
rhythms are more important. Whatever rhythm temporal passage follows, what is of
importance to our study is that for all societies there is time as quantity and time qualified
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in contextual terms, being that a historical event, a ritual, or the time of a significant for
the society event.

6) Leonardo Benevolo, The History of the City, (transl. by Geoffrey Culverwell), London:
Scolar press, 1980, p. 311.

7) Ibid, p. 326.

8) Frederick Hartt, A history of Italian Renaissance art, London: Thames and Hudson,
1984 (c/1980), p. 359.

9) Ibid, p. 166.

10) Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, London: Sheed & Ward, 1985 (c/1975), p.
100.

11) Ibid.

12) Passage from gradual change to an abrupt change in organisms is studied by Rene
Thorn in hiscatastrophe theory; see: Rene Thorn, Structural stability and morphogenesis,
Reading MA: W. A. Benjamin, 1975.

13) We take the term "time" unifying abstract concept. We do not question here
as a
dilemmas such as real/unreal
one/many. F. M. Bradley, Nelson Goodman and L.
or

Wittgenstein, among others, in their occupation with such dilemmas seem to have followed
only the Parmenidean "WAY OF TRUTH" and forgotten its complementary "WAY OF
SEEMING". In other words they attempted to solve dilemmas which were created by the
adoption of formal logic for the conceptualization of time. See appendix I, FORMAL vs
DIALECTIC LOGIC.

14) An interested study on this matter has been: Paul Roubiczek, Thinking in Opposites: an
investigation of the nature of man as revealed by the nature of thinking, London: Routlege
and Kegal Paul, 1952. Appendix I discusses relevant issues.

15) Fernand Braudel, Capitalism and material life, vol. 1: The structure of everyday life,
trans. Miriam Kocham, revised by Sian Reynolds, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1981. Also Fer¬
nand Braudel, On History, transl. by Sarah Matthews, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
1980, particularly pp. 24-54.

16) Mircea Eliade, Patterns in comparative religion (transl. by Rosemary Sheed), London:
Sheed & Ward, 1958, p. 373.

17) Proclus, Elements of Theology, cited in: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Unnatural pebbles, Edin¬
burgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1981.

18) Giancarlo De Carlo in Urbino, in: ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, vol. 986/1979, p.

212.

19) ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, no 9-10/1980, Les Halles, London: Academy Editions.

20) Recently, even Barcelona Pavillion has been considered as contextual creation, despite
its claim to universality. For instance: Ignasi de Sola-Morales, Fernando Ramos, Christian

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Cirici, La riconstruzione del Padiglione di Mies a Barcelona, in CASABELLA, no 526,
July-Aug. 1986, pp. 44-55.

21) Lucien Steil, Destruction and Reconstruction in Art and Design, vol. 2, Oct. 1986, pp.
10-11.

22) Alois Riegl, The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Character and its Origin, transl. by
Kurt Forster and Diane Ghirardo, in: OPPOSITIONS, vol. 25, N.Y.: Rizzoli, Fall 1982, pp.
31-34.

23) For instance: Brent Brolin, Architecture in context, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980.

24) Lecture by Maurice Culot, in: Architecture and the City, SYMPOSIUM 18-22 1984 in
London. AD, vol. 47, no 3, 1977, pp. 189-99 .

25) Giancarlo De Carlo, op. cit., p. 212.

26) Paul Ricoeur, Time & Narrative (trans, by Kathleen McLauphlin and David Pellauer),
University of Chicago Press, 1984 (c/1983, TEMPS & RECIT, ed. Seuil), vol. I., p. 228.

27) In: GIFFORD LECTURES 1986, University of Edinburgh, lecture V, The narrative
identity of self.

28) Paul Ricoeur, Time & narrative, op. cit., p. X.

29) Paolo Portoghesi, The Brion Vega cemetery by Carlo Scarpa, in: GLOBAL ARCHI¬
TECTURE, vol. 50, Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita, 1979.

30) David Lowenthal, Age and Artifact: Dilemmas of Appreciation, in: D. W. Meinig
(ed.), The interpretation of ordinary landscapes, Oxford University Press, 1979, p. 117.

31) A rough analogy with the consideration of objects in relativity theory could be drawn
here. According to this theory an object is an intensification in the space-time field and
although field and object constantly change, the object is inconceivable outside this field.

32) The notion of continuity in interpretation, as a measure of aesthetic value, will be dis¬
cussed inChapter Seven.

33) Colin Rowe & Robert Slutzky, Transparency : Literal and phenomenal, in: Colin
Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, MIT, 1976, pp. 159-183 and
especially pp. 160-161.

34) George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, & Society, Edited and with an introduction by
Charles W. Morris, Works of G. H. Mead, vol. 1, The University of Chicago Press, 1974
(c/1934).

35) Despite his dual aspect theory of self as "I" an "YOU" , Ricoeur attempts to resolve
the dualism, or to advance it further, by adopting the notion of the "narrative self' to
address and describe the unity of the self. Paul Ricoeur, "On selfhood. The question of
personal identity", The 1986 Gifford lectures, Edinburgh University.

36) Marie-Louise Von Franz, Synchronicity and the I-CHING, in: ABOUT TIME, London:

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Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp. 133-135.

37) See for instance: Rose Macalau, The pleasure of ruins, London: Weidenfeld & Nicol-
son, 1953.

CHAPTER FIVE: SPATIO - TEMPORAL CONTEXTUALISM

AND PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS

1) Ignasi de Sola Morales, From contrast to analogy: Developments in the concept of

architectural intervention in LOTUS, vol. 46, no 2/1985, p. 37.

2) Ibid.

3) We discussed in Chapter One how contrast emerged as a way of relating.

4) Paul Ricoeur, Universal Civilization and National Cultures, in: Paul Ricoeur, History
and Truth (transl. by Charles A. Kelbley), Northwestern University Press, 1965.

5) Traditional societies are characterized only by imitation. There is no need in a traditional

society for contrast to the existing values, since permanence is valued more. This is not to
imply that traditional societies are stationary, but that change comes as a result rather than
as conscious intention. For the notion of tradition see: Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
Knowledge
and the Sacred, Edinburgh Univ. Press, Edinburgh 1981, pp. 65-92.

6) The Indian poet Rabidranath Tagore and the Japanese architect Kurokawa disqualified
the Greek Parthenon as a work of art. In: N. Kurokawa, Architecture of the Road, Ekistics,
vol. 16, no 96, Nov. 1963, p. 288.

7) Bruno Queysanne, One day my prince will come, in: International Laboratory of Archi¬
tecture and Urban Design, Yearbook 1983/1984: Memories, Expectations and Actions,
Firenze: Sansoni, 1984, pp. 54-55.

8) Kevin Lynch, What Time is this Place, MIT Press, 1972.

9) Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, Sheed and Ward: 1985 (c/1975), (translated
from the second German edition, 1975).

10) Ibid., p. 273.

11) Ibid., pp. 249-250.

12) Ibid., p. 273.

13) Richard J. Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics and
Praxis, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985 (c/1983), pp. 128-129.

14) For the dispute between Gadamer - Habermas See: Joseph Bleicher, Contemporary
Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics as method, philosophy and critique, London: Routlege and
Kegan Paul, 1980, pp. 3-4 and mainly pp. 153-158. Bleicher traces the steps of this debate
in note 3 to his introduction, p. 260.

15) Gadamer, op.cit., p. 273.

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16) Ibid., pp. 239-240.

17) Gianni Vattimo, Project and Legitimization I, in LOTUS INTERNATIONAL, no 48-

49, 1985-86, pp. 118-125.

18) H. G. Gadamer, op. cit., p. 275.

19) Ibid., p. 259.

20) Ibid., p. 261.

21) Ibid.

22) J. Bleicher, op. cit., pp. 114-116.

23) Joseph J. Kockelmans, Heidegger on Art and Art Works, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff,
1985, pp. 194-202.

24) Gadamer, op.cit., pp. 274-278.

25) R. Bernstein, op. cit., pp. 207-232.

26) Cited in Bernstein, op. cit., p. 220.

27) Pietro Derossi, Project and legitimization II, in LOTUS INTERNATIONAL, vol. 48-
49, 1985-86, pp. 126-33.

28) Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, transl. by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson,
Basil Blackwell, 1983 (c/1962), pp. 188-195 & p. 358 ff. Also Gadamer, op. cit., pp.
238-240, p. 245, pp. 258-261.

29) Emilio Beth and E.D. Hirsh have been the main exponents of objectivity in interpreta¬
tion. For the dispute between Gadamer - Betti See: Bleicher, op. cit., pp. 24-47. Also E.D.
Hirsh, Jr: The Aims of Interpretation, The University of Chicago Press, 1978 (c/1976).

30) Jurgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel are the main exponents of critical hermeneutics.
See Bleicher, op. cit., pp. 141-158.

31) Cf. the discussion in Chapter Four about the parts/whole problem.

32) Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, transl. by Kathleen McLauphlin and David Pellauer,
The University of Chicago Press, 1984, vol. I, p. 54.

33) Ibid., p. 57.

34) Hans-Georg Gadamer, Aesthetics and Hermeneutics, in: H.-G. Gadamer, Philosophical
Hermeneutics, translated and edited by David E. Linge, University of California Press,
1976, p. 103.

35 ) Appendix I.

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CHAPTER SIX: THE DIALECTICS OF HERMENEUTIC EXPERIENCE
IN TWO CONTEXTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PART ONE : ROSSI'S TEATRO IN VENICE

Dal Co, Francesco. Now This is Lost: The Theatre of the World by Aldo Rossi at the Ven¬
ice Biennale, in: LOTUS, vol. 25, part IV, 1979.

Dall' Omo, Sergio. Folklore Veneto (In English), Veneto Region.

Harms, Martin. Historic Precedent in the Studio: Project for Venice, in: JOURNAL OF
ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION, Winter 1982, vol. XXXV, part 2, pp. 29-32.

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, First International Exhibition of Architecture: The Presence

of the Past, Venice, 1980.

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, Third International Exhibition of Architecture: Venice Pro¬

ject, Milano: Electa Editrice, 1985.

Libeskind, Daniel. "Deus ex Machina"/"Machina ex Deo": Aldo Rossi's Theater of the

World, in: OPPOSITIONS, no 21, Summer 1980, pp. 3-23.

Morris, Jan (Ed.). John Ruskin: The Stones of Venice, London: Faber & Faber, 1981.

Paolucci, Antonio. Canaletto, London: Thames and Hudson, 1978.

PROGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE, Teatro del Mondo, October 1980.

Rossi, Aldo. A Scientific Autobiography, The MIT Press, 1981. Opere Recenti, Exhibition
Catalogue, Perugia: Comune di Modena, Comune di Perugia, 1983 Selected Writings and
.

Projects, London: Blue Studio, 1983. The Architecture of the City, The MIT Press, 1982.

Scudo, Gianni & Donaldini, Paolo. Pains of Venice, in: ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, no
6, 1975.

Selmi, Paolo. Castles, Fortresses and Walled Places in Venetia, Regione Veneto. Paolo
Selmi, The Spirit of Venetian Civilization, Regione Veneto.

Tafuri, Manfredo. The Ephemeral is Eternal: Aldo Rossi in Venice, in: DOMUS, no 602,
1980.

The Genius of Venice 1500-1600, Exhibition Catalogue, London: Royal Academy of Art,
1984.

PART TWO : PIKIONIS' RESPONSE TO THE CLASSICAL ATHENS

American School of Classical Studies at Athens, The Athenian Agora: A Guide to the
Excavation and Museum, 1976.

Antoniades, Antony C. Contemporary Greek Architecture (In Greek), Athens: Anthropos +

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Choros, 1979, pp. 45-56. Poems with stones: The Enduring Spirit of Pikionis, in: A + U
(ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM ), December 1976.
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Demetris Pikionis, Nov. 1963.

Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, transl. by John Raffan, Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1985 ( A reference study on the religion and culture of Ancient Greece ).

Doxiadis, C. A. Theories of Harmonic Proportions in Architecture, in: THE THIRD EYE,

op. cit., pp. 213-225.

Giannopoulos, Pericles. The Greek Line, in: THE THIRD EYE: 1935-1937, Athens: Greek
Literary and Historic Archive (In Greek), 1982, pp. 39-41.

Holden, David. Virtue and Form, THE GUARDIAN, 22 August 1963.

Jones, C. J. The Ionians and Hellenism, Routlege and Kegan Paul, 1980.

Konstantinidis, Aris. Elements of Self-knowledge for a True Architecture (In Greek and in
English), Athens: 1975 ( A poetic account on the Greek spirit and the relation between ver¬
nacular and Classical Greek architecture ).

Kurokawa, N. Architecture of the Road, in: EKISTICS, vol. 16, part 96, Nov. 1963, pp.
288-293.

Liapis, Ioannis. Demetris Pikionis (1887-1968) (In Greek), in: ARCHITECTURE IN

GREECE, vol. 3, 1969, pp. 76-100.

Mendelsohn, Erich. The Attic Landscape and Acropolis, in: THE THIRD EYE, op. cit., pp.
64-66.

Nilsson, Martin P. The Minoan - Mycaenean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion,
Second Edition, Lund: C. W. K. GLEERUP, 1950.

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards A Phenomenology of Architecture, Lon¬

don: Academy Editions, 1980, pp. 169, 198. ( Norberg-Schulz attempts a dialectical read¬
ing of the Greek temple ).

Pikionis, Demetris. Admonitions (In Greek), in: TECHNIKA CHRONIKA, Special Issue,
Dec. 1965, pp. 42-46. Sentimental Topography, in: THE THIRD EYE, op. cit., pp. 45-49.
The Theory of the Architect C. Doxiadis for the Spatial Development of Ancient Architec¬
ture, in: THE THIRD EYE, op. cit., pp. 234-246.

Provelegios, Aristomenis. The Spirit of the City (In Greek), Athens, 1974.

Snell, Bmno. The Discovery of the Mind in Greek Philosophy and Literature, N.Y.: Dover,
1982.

Travlos, I., Petropoulou, M., Pentazos, E. Ancient Greek Cities, no 17: Athens, Athens:
Athens Centre of Ekistics, 1972.

Travlos, Ioannis. Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens, Athens: The German School of

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Archaeology, 1971.

Tsilalis, Th. Christos. The Life and Works of Pikionis (In Greek), Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, 1970.

Vassiliades, D. A Creation of Ultimate Aesthetic Virtue: The Landscaping of the Hills

around the Acropolis (In Greek), in: TECHNIKA CHRONIKA, General Issue, no 216,
July 1962, pp. 31-43.

Vermeule, Emily. Greece in the Bronze Age, The University of Chicago Press, 1964.

Wycherley, R. E. The Stones of Athens, Princeton University Press, 1978 ( About the
materials in the land of Attica
).

CHAPTER SEVEN: DIALECTICAL HERMENEUTICS

AS A VALUE JUDGMENT THEORY

1) We are here using play as a metaphor, at the risk of idealizing actual play, i.e. childrens
play.

2) See in Chapter Three a discussion of the notions of Play and seriousness.

3) Francis Sparshott, The Theory of the Arts, Princeton University Press, 1982, p. 61-

4) Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, London Sheed and Ward, 1985 (c/1975), pp.
91-119.

5) Ibid., p. 91.

6) See Appendix II.

7) Gadamer, op. cit., p. 319.

8) Ibid.

9) Ibid., p. 454.

10) In a modal logic sense, Aristotle has argued that if something is infinitely possible,
then it really exists. See for instance: Sarah Waterlow, Passage and possibility: A study of
Aristotle's modal concept, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982. Also, Jaako Hintikka, Time
and necessity: studies in Aristotle's theory of modality, Oxford University Press, 1973, and

Lindsay Judson, Eternity and necessity in de caelo 1.12, in: Julia Annas (ed.), Oxford stu¬
dies in ancient philosophy, vol. I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983, p. 218.

11) Appendix II.

12) The Greek Classical Scholar Ioannis Sycoutris, provides an exellent interpretation of
the Aristotelian katholou, in: Aristotle's Poetics (in Greek), translated by Simos Menan-
dros, with introduction, text and interpretation by Ioannis Sycoutris, Academy of Athens
Ed., 1936, pp. 60*- 65*. Gadamer calls the true nature of something "its truth", in: Gada¬
mer, op. cit., p. 446.
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13) Unidentified source.

14) ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, no 9-10, Les Halles, London: Academy Editions, 1980.

15) Aldo Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography, MIT Press, 1981, p. 66.

16) See n. 21 in Chapter Three. Cf. also Panofsky, Idea, p. 6. <;• ..

17) Gadamer, op. cit., pp. 55-56.

18) Susan Sontag, Against interpretation, in: A Susan Sontag Reader, Peiiguin books, 1982
(c/1964), pp. 95-104.

CHAPTER EIGHT: POWER AND LIMITATIONS OF A THEORY

CONCERNING ARCHITECTURAL CREATION

1) Norman O. Brown has argued that dualism is the philosophy of pessimism and dialec¬
tics thephilosophy of optimism in: Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoa¬
nalytic Meaning of History, p. 84.

2) Gyorgy Doczi, The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art and Archi¬
tecture, Boulder & London: Shambhala, 1981.

3) Ibid., p. 7.

4) Giancarlo De Carlo, Beyond Postmodernism, in: Richard C. Hatch, The Scope of Social
Architecture, New Jersey, 1964, p. VI.

5) Edson Aimi, Contextualism: The New Dogma of American Architecture, in: ARTS
MAGAZINE, vol. 56, Pt 2, Oct. 1981.

6) Vittorio Gregotti, Venice and the New Modernism, in: AA FILES ( Architectural Asso¬
ciation Files), no 10, Autumn 1985, pp. 13-17.

7) Ibid., p. 14.

8) See Appendix I.

9) Art After WW1, Open University transmission, 9/3/86, BBC 2.

10) Plato, LAWS (tr. by R. G. Bury), Book IV, 719c, in: Loeb Classical Library,
Heinemann, vol. I, p. 305. See also Hans-Georg Gadamer, Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight
Hermeneutical studies on Plato, Yale University Press, 1980, pp. 41-43.

11) T. S. Eliot, Tradition and Individual Talent, in: The Sacred Wood, Methuen, 1983
(c/1920), pp. 47-59.

12) Appendix I. See also in DIELS-KRANZ, Fragmente der Vorsokratiken, Weidmannsche

Verlagsbuchhand, 1951, fragment 90 about dissoi logoi, work of an anonymous sophist of
the 5th century.

13) The ataraxia of the sceptics, in this context can be seen as one praxis to abolish or
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encompass all praxeis.

14) Phronesis appears to mean practical wisdom, a form of interaction between theoria
and praxis. See Hans-Georg Gadamer, Reason in the Age of Science, MIT Press, 1982 p.
XXIII. See also: Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, transl. by Kathleen McLaughlin and
David Pellauer, vol. I, The University of Chicago Press, 1984, p. 40.

15) For the notion of the third term in dialectics see Appendix I.

16) Paul Ricoeur, The Gifford Lectures 1986, On Selfhood: The question of personal iden¬
tity, Fourth lecture: Moral imputation: The responsive self, Edinburgh 1986.

17) Romaldo Giurgola, Notes on Architecture and Morality, in: PRECIS ( Columbia
University Graduate School of Architecture ), vol. II, 1980, p. 51.

18) Eisenman argues about the opposite in PERSPECTA 21, MIT Press, 1984.

19) N. John Habraken, The General from the Local, Key-note address for the 8th Interna¬
tional Forum of the European Association for Architectural Education, Newcastle upon
Tyne, England, April 13 1983, p. 8.

20) Daniel Libeskind distinguishes between theorists aiming to go back to the unselfcons-
cious way of building ( Schulz, Alexander ) and theorists aiming at salvation through
knowledge ( Rossi, Aalto ). In: OPPOSITIONS, no 21.

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